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{
    "id": 543164,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/543164/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 223,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Musyoka",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 794,
        "legal_name": "Susan Mbinya Musyoka",
        "slug": "susan-mbinya-musyoka"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I stand to support this Bill and thank hon. Millie for bringing it here and for the work that has already been done on it. The world over, 13 to 14 per cent of women within the reproductive age have issues of infertility. If we went for the absolute figures, that is a high number of women. In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and other methods of assisting women to reproduce have been here in this world for more than 30 years. In Kenya, IVF has been practised for long but it has been practised without a regulation. A regulation is being put in place and we should all support it. We should all welcome it and we should all see it as an opportunity for this particular discipline to be practised in an organised manner. I am not saying it is done in a disorganized manner but I know that it is a very expensive exercise for a woman to get a child through IVF today. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I have been to countries outside Kenya and I have seen IVF being part of the treatment is some centres and even it is supported by the government. In our case, a lot of money has to be spent by the person who is concerned. It is very expensive and many women, because of some stigma associated with this, have had to leave the country, go through the exercise outside the country and come back pregnant or come back after they have had a surrogate mother delivering their baby. We need to remove stigma in this. We need to accept that infertility can happen to any woman; our child or our sister. Any woman can go through this and instead of the trauma, we who are in Parliament today, should ease that pressure and make sure that it is easy and there is a way for women to approach and get the service. It is true we in the Departmental Committee on Health have been waiting for the Health Bill. We have waited for it ever since we came to Parliament. There is some sort of procrastination with our Government and we cannot continue to wait forever and in the process gag Members who have private Bills like this one. So, I would support this in the strongest terms possible and I am sure it is going to be a useful Bill for our women and even men who have issues of infertility. It is true that there are other methods of assisted reproductive technologies but now somebody has put in so much work on the IVF and put a Bill together. Let us accept this Bill and if we have any amendments we can bring them forth in the other stage. The IVF should not be done secretly. It should be brought to the open and even we should train and educate our people in the grassroots to understand these issues and to accept them so that when I am branded infertile and I come back with a baby, it does not look strange. That baby should be accepted in society and be part of the community and the family. So, I stand here to support and say that people are not infertile out of their own design. It is part of life and if there is a way of assisting them, it should be done. We should not create impediments in the laws that are coming up to make life easy for The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}