GET /api/v0.1/hansard/entries/379252/?format=api
HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 379252,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/379252/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 240,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": "the operation theatre, misoperated the patient and left her for dead. There have been many Kenyans who have gone to theatres for operations and doctors leave hypodermic needles, cotton pads and all manner of materials in their bodies. A clear case is the famous Luhya man called Ngaira, who was I think the Chairman or Vice-Chairman of the Public Service Commission at Independence. He was taken to hospital, operated on and the doctor left a pair of scissors in his tummy and closed it. The man died. Sen. G. G Kariuki remembers that. Madam Temporary Speaker, that is why when the Mover of this Motion talks of misdiagnosis, wrong decisions on treatment and prescriptions, it tells a big story. There is a man who once walked into my office to ask me to sue a doctor. He told me that he went for treatment in a private clinic since he had a gaping wound on his leg. The doctor actually wrapped chalk, placed it in the wound and charged him a fee. The man left and the wound became very bad, and his leg was cut off. There are many similar cases, but I must continue to say that we have a lot of good doctors and nurses. This is because this country exports a lot of man and women power to other countries. Madam Temporary Speaker, we have the Medical Practioners and Dentists Board which I have no doubt the Mover--- but it is so overwhelmed that cases of negligence of this nature cannot be adequately addressed by that single board. We have the Ombudsman whose duty is to address public complaints. Again, the Ombudsman is stuck in Nairobi. There was the case of the late Chief Justice Zacchaeus Chesoni, who was treated by one of the most prominent doctors in this country; a doctor who treats Presidents. Chesoni went to hospital suffering from pneumonia and this doctor put him on treatment for malaria. He kept on pumping malaria drugs in the poor man until he died. This was a Chief Justice of the country. If persons at that level can be a victim of such callous negligence, then you can imagine the ordinary man in Korogocho, Kibera and the villages that we represent. They suffer even more. That is why we need to have a mechanism of checking cases of recklessness and negligence. We in the Law Society of Kenya have a disciplinary mechanism where any lawyer who misappropriates clients’ money, misadvises a client or does anything inconsistent with the expectations of his or her calling as a professional, is struck off the roll of advocates. Such lawyers will remain struck off until they demonstrate that they have changed their bad habits, so that they can be entitled to be given an opportunity to hold people’s interests in trust. Madam Temporary Speaker, this should not be any different with medics. This is because a lawyer can misrepresent you and send you to jail for two years, but a medic who misapplies their skills on you, sends you to the grave. That is where the big difference comes. So, as we devolve the structures of Government in the country, it is very important that we give meaning and effect to this Motion, so that all the good things that we do in Nairobi, which are not good enough--- You can imagine an aggrieved person in Malindi, Wajir or Turkana who wants to take on a negligent doctor. He has to come to Nairobi to see the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board. We must devolve these facilities to the ordinary people where they are, so that they can also be able to walk in and say: “I was attended to. Look at how twisted my mouth is because of a doctor injecting me in the nerve. Do I have any recourse to anything?” You will find many people limping on the streets of Nairobi and the countryside, who go for surgery on their The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}