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{
    "id": 51537,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/51537/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 328,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Our efforts have never borne any fruit. The cost-sharing policy was initiated by the Government a few years ago. However, it has become less effective in assisting our people. Even though the private sector has tried to remedy the situation by introducing into the market a variety of health insurance schemes and, most recently, an insurance package to cover death expenses, these schemes are still out of reach to a majority of ordinary Kenyans. The Government-run scheme, popularly called the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) does not cater for expenses beyond the hospital ward or bed. Many district hospitals in the country were designed with morgue facilities as part of the infrastructure. However, most of them have not been operationalizated and equipped to assist our people. I want to give my very specific situation of Maragwa District Hospital which became a district hospital in 1996. Since then, it has continued to offer services to more than 400,000 people, but it does not have a mortuary. Our people in that particular area have continued to incur very huge burial expenses. They take the bodies of their departed relatives to Thika District Hospital, Murang’a District Hospital, Nairobi and Nyeri. We do not have a morgue in that hospital. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I urge the Ministry of Medical Services to partner with the Committee of CDF, so that we can at least put up a morgue facility in that hospital. So far, through the CDF, we have been able to allocate Kshs2 million for the construction of a morgue in that hospital. However, we are yet to receive Kshs4 million from the Ministry of Medial Services. This is a situation where we have demand- driven services for the population. However, the Government is not responding to our needs and our people are suffering. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, to respond to this huge need or demand for morgue services in Kenya, in the recent past, we have witnessed a rise in the number of privately-owned funeral homes. These private investments have come up with better products and improved services. However, these improved services come with costs. They have also segmented Kenyans along income streams in death, just as in life. These homes are beyond the reach of many poor Kenyans. The need for diversity and efficient service delivery has seen two categories of morgues evolve in this country. Several private investors have in recent years ventured into this business to complement a service that was hitherto and traditionally a preserve of Government hospitals. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, however, the quality of service remains the key underlying determinant of the fees in those facilities. The category of morgues otherwise referred to as funeral homes lead the pack in terms of the fees charged. Within Nairobi, the lowest rate is Kshs2,000 per day with discounts of Kshs500 for each day within one week. The rates do not cover other preferential services such as embalming which goes up to Kshs10,000 per cadaver and other costs such as post-mortem or collecting the body outside working hours, among others. Those services are charged separately by those privately owned mortuaries or funeral homes. Depending on the requests that the owners or the families of the deceased put, costs can go as high as Kshs15,000 to Kshs20,000 just for preserving a body that has been lying in a morgue with families continuing to suffer and yearning to bury that kind of body."
}