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{
    "id": 517301,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/517301/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 321,
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    "content": "introduce which will give universal health care to all the Kenyans, whether they are rich or poor? Sen. (Prof.) Anyang’-Nyong’o had proposed a very good idea; that we do a very modern facility in this country where we will bring in those top experts from abroad so that we stop sending people to India. Instead, we would have specialists in this country so that Kenyans are treated locally. When I travelled to Abu Dhabi, I found that plan working. The King there said that no citizen of Abu Dhabi will be treated abroad, including himself. So, he was ready to sponsor any top medical expert from anywhere in the world to come and treat people in his own country. If we introduced this plan in this country, it would help in very many ways because there is no patient who travels to India alone. You travel with a relative and sometimes by the time you get to go there, you would have already been treated at KNH, from where you are then referred to India or South Africa by some medical practitioners. So, it is a very expensive exercise. If we could find a way of cutting that traffic of going to South Africa, India or to other places through building a modern facility here and bringing those experts here, that is one way we will be helping our people better. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I completely support this question of universal health care through expansion of the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF). It is one way of cutting out and reducing these harambees. We have the Value Added Tax (VAT), which is now at 18 per cent. I would not mind if we could increase VAT by another two per cent so that we dedicate one per cent to a medical fund which we can use for taking care of those of us who are not covered by any insurance or those of us who cannot afford to pay their medical bills, instead of sending them to struggle with harambees. Similarly, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we can look at areas where harambees can be restricted. Harambees are not meant for everything. They are either for medical---. Those are the most serious ones. I am a Christian and I know that some of the projects we are getting from the churches are unrealistic. God is everywhere. He can even be worshipped under a tree and He can still hear your prayers. But there appears to be competition by churches to build monuments or pyramids; and the bigger you are, the more blessed you are. So, the kind of requests that we are getting, as Senators or Members of Parliament now, the church committee will meet, organize themselves, maybe get a donation from an architect who will draw plans for a hall of Kshs20 million and then they appear in the Senator’s Office. They will say “ mheshimiwa, you know we supported you fully and now this is a small request that we are making to you to help us and God will bless you immensely.”"
}