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{
    "id": 554353,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/554353/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 290,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for example, Section 3 of this Bill is on the issue of safe motherhood and it tells us who are authorised to handle these issues. It also says that maternal health care services will only be provided by trained health professionals. The emphasis here is on trained health professionals. Again, it gives us guarantee that it will not just be anybody or any professional in the medical field. It will be those who are trained to do so – trained medical practitioners, clinical officers, nurses and midwives – thereby guaranteeing safety of the patients. This particular section also compels both national and county public hospitals and other health care facilities to ensure access to the highest standard and quality of services. Again, this is something that we desire to see; services in support of reproductive health rights. This is very important. Under this Bill, public and county facilities will be required to provide free services to pregnant women. That is my understanding. I know that many times we take that for granted that people will go to hospitals when they feel they need to. However, many in the villages including my own village are unable to go to hospital particularly when they know that they will be required to raise fees to pay someone. Here, they are being guaranteed that they will get free services from public institutions. I think this Bill is moving in the right direction. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, under this Bill, we are creating a Reproductive Health Care Board (RHCB). I think this is necessary and the functions of the Board are very clear; to ensure coordination and implementation of national and county government policies. Emphasis here is on coordination and implementation. We know that there are policies and that both levels of government have put in place various policies but the critical feature here is the absence of coordination. There is no coordination mechanism and the Board is being created under this Bill to ensure that there is coordination and implementation of all the policies, regulations and laws that may be made under the two levels of government on issues relating to the productive health care rights. This Board will be charged with the responsibility of creating awareness and educating the general public on all issues relating to reproductive health care rights. This is important particularly for those of us who represent rural counties. It is also a huge challenge. We feel that there is a place for such a Board and there is a role for it – to educate the public on their reproductive health rights. It is also required to develop policies to protect all persons from physical and sexual violence and discrimination of any kind. We know what that means especially in the communities that we represent. There are cultural practices that contradict health care rights and we will now have an institution, the RHCB, whose responsibility will be to wage campaigns against cultural practices which contradict reproductive health care rights of Kenyans. However, Sen. (Dr.) Zani talked about the composition of the Board being too huge. Some thoughts should be given to reducing it in order to ensure more effective representation of all the stakeholders in this sector. In conclusion, I thank Sen. Sijeny and all those who have worked with her to come up with this Bill which gives us the direction that we want to go. 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."
}