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{
    "id": 569522,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/569522/?format=api",
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    "content": "taken up by relatives within the community. We should now start enlightening and making our people aware that these orphaned children, by virtue of HIV/AIDS, can be given some financial assistance through the cash transfer programme for orphans. I know that the Cabinet Secretary came and briefed this Senate on the cash disbursements going to vulnerable people. We need to lock out the middle men or the care-givers who receive this money, but do not pass the benefits to the orphans and widows who deserve it. The NACC has come up with the Kenya HIV/AIDS profile, which makes very interesting reading. The other document referred to is the Kenya AIDS Strategic Framework. It also gives us very detailed information about this scourge. The specific prayer about this Motion is that the Government should set up the NACC county offices in all county headquarters. I know that the Senators who have spoken ahead of me have talked about devolution of the NACC. I am not sure that the wording of this Motion intends to achieve that full devolution or it only aims at ensuring that we set up structures and offices which will still be controlled from the centre. Madam Temporary Speaker, if the intention of this Motion is to set up offices then bureaucracy is expensive. We need to be a little bit clever and sensitive on how we do it. The NACC coordinates stakeholders in their multi-sectoral response to HIV/AIDS. The HIV/AIDS has given birth to a fledgling industry of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Nowadays, we see people forming NGOs. They take photos of children of whose parents have died and send them overseas for funding. When they get the money, they use it to campaign for political office. We need to make sure that we tighten the controls, supervision and integration of players in this field. We need to deal with this emerging industries that prey on the misfortune of people living with HIV/AIDS. We also need to ensure that we limit and reduce duplication of efforts and resources in the fight against HIV/AIDS. It is for that reason that I support that the NACC should have structures at the county level. However, I would like to make a proposal that could be considered as an amendment to this Motion. When you look at the mapping of the country, you could say that the country can be categorized into three sections. We have counties with high prevalence, counties with medium prevalence and counties with low prevalence. I think the lowest prevalence will be counties in north eastern Kenya where it is less than 1 per cent whereas for Homa Bay, Kisumu, Migori, Siaya, Kisii and Turkana, the prevalence rates are high. As I said earlier, bureaucracy is expensive. If you start setting up offices in counties, you cannot set up a big one in Kisumu and a small one in Mandera because all these counties are equal. We need to think of a progressive approach. As the NACC sets up offices at the county level, it should be done progressively starting with counties that are defined as hyper-endemic. Counties defined as hyper-endemic could be counties where HIV/AIDS prevalence is about 15 per cent. If the national average is 6 per cent, then we insist that the NACC should prioritise counties where the prevalence rate is above the national rate. We should not end up with a situation where we have 47 NACC 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."
}