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{
    "id": 621282,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/621282/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 268,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Machage",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 179,
        "legal_name": "Wilfred Gisuka Machage",
        "slug": "wilfred-machage"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I second. Cancer has grown to a level that may be called a pandemic in our country if at all it was not reported on so much. The prevalence rate of many cancers has increased. We do not know why but maybe it is because of the advent of HIV/AIDS and the associated cancers which include cancers of the blood and the skin and the lymphatic system. It could also be due to improved diagnosis due to the availability of machines that we have now in the country; level of knowledge, existence of some oncologists in the country or just sheer change of attitude on the population in reporting cancers. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this is a grassroots problem. Cancer patients tend to come from the villages. It was long ago known that some cancers only affected the affluent. That is not true. If you read the earlier text books, they would consider some cancers to have existed only in the Caucasian groups and Asians but now we are seeing the existence of cancers across the board. I think that explains the availability of medical systems and diagnostic centers mainly for the black population in this country. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we therefore, receive cancers from the villages at very advanced levels. In most cases, if you study thee stages of cancer, cancers are mild at stage one and extreme at stage four. Most of the cancer patients that we receive from the villages are at the third or fourth stages of cancer which is not usually easy to treat despite having a few cancer treatment centers in our country now, hence the necessity to amend the cancer Act of 2012 to include a few things that need to be considered, especially at the village level. Since we have counties at that level in devolution, it has become important to have county committees. The county committees have to report somewhere for proper data collection and collation and hence the creation of the central country committee. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, what Kenya is going through is dependent on our passing of this Bill so that we have faster diagnosis and management of existing cancers. We have had an increase of throat, skin, colon cancers and, leukemia which is cancer of the blood. We have also seen a trend in the increase of cancer of the lymphatic system. This must be checked. I beg to second. ( Question proposed )"
}