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"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Kuti",
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"legal_name": "Mohammed Abdi Kuti",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the information that has been provided by the Senator is very valid and I am sure that she will expound on it when the right time comes. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was speaking about the issue of drugs supply. As I said earlier, our observation was that here we have an institution with over Kshs4 billion worth of medicine in preparation for the counties and monies that have already gone to the counties. Now that the counties have the mandate and authority to procure from whatever source that they want, our recommendation – and I am very grateful to Sen. Kindiki – is that we need to amend the KEMSA Act, so that some alignment is done, where the KEMSA, which is an arm of Government for procuring, warehousing and distributing medicines, especially vaccines, which are very essential medical goods, that have to be transported through a maintenance of cold--- This can only be done in a specialized way by the KEMSA. But since there is no legal provision for that, that alignment was very important. We made that recommendation and we have approved, as a Committee, some amendment to the KEMSA Act, and it is now being published. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also recommended that the county directors of health should ensure that hospitals get title deeds for their land, now that the counties are becoming the focus of development and cash flow will improve in those counties. One of the issues that will immediately arise is real estate and the rush for land. Some of those hospitals do not even have boundaries and fences. Others do not even have titles and ownership of those lands. As a Committee, we recommended that these Government institutions should get their titles as soon as possible. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there was also the recommendation regarding waste disposal. We realized that most of them use very old methods of waste disposal, like pits. Needles, syringes and other hospital waste are burnt in pits. Our recommendation is that most, if not all county health facilities, should focus on medical waste management, through building of incinerators and use of modernized waste management procedures. If time allows I will expound on that. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it was recommended also that each referral hospital should have a research component. This is because we are relying only on old research from Western countries, which do not have some diseases like malaria and tuberculosis. Most of the tropical diseases are just with us, but you will realize that the research and results of that research and medicines that we depend on, are from countries that do not even have those diseases. Therefore, our recommendation, as a Committee, is that continuous research and development in the medical field should be given a higher priority, so that, maybe, we will have better and more affordable medical care for our people. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to appreciate all the people who were involved in this work, especially the Senators, who are Members of the Committee, and those from the counties that we visited, who were able to lead us in their counties. We are also very grateful to the governors and medical personnel in those counties. I am also very grateful to the secretariat and the Office of the Speaker, for organizing, funding and enabling us to have that experience that we had. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}