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"content": "the National Assembly by none other than the then Attorney-General of the Republic of Kenya, who is now the Senator for Busia County, way back in 2009. It was one of my proudest Bills. It was not my product but a product of a task force that I set up to review all the laws relating to HIV. This is because at that time, HIV/AIDS was like a mysterious disease. Not too much was known and there was a lot of mystery about the disease. Children were being stopped from going to school because they were HIV positive. People were being denied jobs because they were HIV positive. Even within families, people did not invite others because of their HIV status. If you were known to be HIV positive, people feared to even greet you at that time. Therefore, it was felt that we needed to have a Bill which would not only make people aware of what the disease was all about but, more importantly, how to prevent and control it. I am pleased that I set up a taskforce that consisted of not only lawyers but also prominent doctors in this country who have contributed a lot in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. It is them, and not me, who came up with that Bill. We just refined it here and there and it was passed. However, at the time it was passed, we did not envisage that a new Constitution would have devolution and two levels of government. Therefore, it is because of this that I wish to thank Sen. (Dr.) Machage for having brought this amendment Bill which, in fact, now makes that main Act consistent with our new Constitution. Under the new Constitution, we have devolved health and, therefore, it is only appropriate that, that Act be amended to be consistent with the new constitutional dispensation. I appeal to my fellow Senators who are experts in various fields; for example, Sen. (Dr.) Machage is an expert in medicine, he even owns a hospital. He has taken the initiative to ensure that this Bill is consistent with the new Constitution. I appeal to them because there are literally hundreds of Acts on our statute books whereas up to now we have been focusing on enacting new Acts as required under the Fourth Schedule of the new Constitution to implement it and bring proper foundation to this Constitution, there are very many other Acts that need to be amended to be consistent with the new Constitution. Therefore, the action that has been taken by Sen. (Dr.) Machage is appropriate and should be emulated by all other Senators who have expertise in various fields. I am proud to belong to the Senate because we have people of varied wealth of experiences in various fields. So, if each one of them took it upon himself or herself to look at one of the Acts and come up with amendments such as these, we, as a Senate, would have fulfilled our statutory and constitutional obligations to legislate on matters which touch on counties. I will not take long because much has been said by the Mover of the Motion, the Senate Minority Leader and others; except just to bring to the attention of the House a few things that, if they consider them good, should be taken into account in making further amendments to this Bill. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, first of all, I am glad that this Bill now states that when the Cabinet Secretary is making regulations under the main Bill, he or she must consult these county committees, that is a step forward. However, going through it slowly by slowly, the County HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Committee which has been established here, I agree with it as far as it goes but I also agree with the Senate Minority Leader that we need to be more specific and give particulars of the various qualifications of the people required to sit on this Committee. I would also suggest the Committee to be slightly expanded because I do not see representation from persons from the religious community. I was taking into account how HIV is 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."
}