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{
    "id": 392739,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/392739/?format=api",
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    "content": "country. So, instead of just highlighting the negative, we should also bring in what has been done and ask for new things. As I have said, we have not yet arrived but there is still a lot of room for improvement. I have only highlighted a few areas. The area that is still problematic is maternal mortality during birth and also at the infant stage but this is being worked on. This is an area that we should ask the Government to put more effort and more money so that more mothers can deliver in hospitals. One major effort which nobody is acknowledging is that the Jubilee Government has made free delivery possible for mothers in all the hospitals and maternity based health centres. One thing which we improved is in those areas which are difficult to reach. We developed shelters where mothers can go and deliver then go home. So, a lot of effort is being made. One of the policies for Vision 2030 is that every Kenyan should be within five kilometres of the nearest health facility. In fact, many facilities were built by Members of Parliament through the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). As the Minister for Public Health and Sanitation, my duty was to equip these facilities and find personnel to work in those areas. Even for the figure I was given to employ, I was not able to get all the nurses in some areas; the reason being that there is a lot of brain drain. Many of our nurses and doctors go abroad to work. The one thing that we should ask the Government is if we could have a policy where, for those who are being employed outside, we could have bilateral negotiations between our Government and those countries, like it happens in Southern African countries like Lesotho, Botswana and many other countries. Kenya supplies most of Africa with health workers and teachers. When there is such negotiation, they may decide that we could be able to train more and more without suffering. Madam Temporary Speaker, even if you have level 4 or level 5 hospitals in every constituency and we have no work force, they will serve no purpose. Therefore, we need to look at and ask the health Ministry is to add capacity on our training so that we can train more nurses and doctors. The Community health workers are now in most constituencies. They are supposed to be in every constituency. These community health workers give information to workers, encouraging them to deliver in hospitals and telling them what to do when malaria strikes. They inform mothers to cover their children with nets. The Ministry for Public Health and Sanitation gave out 11,000,000 nets across the country. These community health workers are supposed to teach and encourage mothers to cover their children. The only problem is that there are some communities who believe that you cannot cover the family with nets. That is the education we need to give to our people. They are also trained on how to treat diarrhea. Diarrhea is the biggest killer now although we are going to introduce a vaccine. Still mothers need education. It is just a very simple solution which is available for the children to make sure they are hydrated. Madam Temporary Speaker, the biggest drawback right now is how to give the community health workers incentive. We found that we need at least 320,000 of them and to put them on the payroll proved very difficult. So, working with the World Health Organisation (WHO), we are encouraging multi-tasking and having the community workers trained. In India when you take a mother to deliver in a hospital you are given a small encouragement but not a salary. Although community health workers do their work 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."
}