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{
    "id": 720094,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/720094/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 125,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Okoth",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12482,
        "legal_name": "Kenneth Odhiambo Okoth",
        "slug": "kenneth-odhiambo-okoth"
    },
    "content": "As I speak about this, Hon. Nyikal mentioned the Walter Reed Project for Clinical Research Centre and the research carried around in partnership with KEMRI. Kibra Constituency has hosted research that is being done by KEMRI/WRP and the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) Kenya) at KEMRI Headquarters and also in the field within Kibra Constituency within the Kibera slum area for over 10 years. It begs the question of what type of research has been done. What types of samples have been collected from our people? What type of consent and participation in that research has taken place? What are the findings? The data and the statistics is going out of our country yet we are told our military does not have this capacity and our Ministry of Health is signing in as a junior partner to this agreement. What type of information will be going out? When we have a military agreement, it is a national security issue. What will the US military know about our vulnerabilities and susceptibilities to different diseases and pathogens? All this information can actually leave Kenya at a disadvantage. So, we need to start engaging in a very serious manner in these treaties and ask: On the flipside, what does Kenya get out of it? My suggestion will be that people who make our treaties must insist on knowledge sharing and retention of data. For any research done out of Kenya, that data should remain property of joint parties including the Kenya Government, so that our researchers can use it in our universities. If we are talking about building this capacity, we can call on it. If any treatments patents come out of these medical treatments, research, threat reduction agreements or preparations and contingency planning, and it is going to be commercialised, they should be of equal benefit to the people of Kenya. Again, I tell you the CDCs have been doing studies and work in Kibra. If there is any intelligence and work that will be commercialised later on, on issues they have researched in Kibra with my people, let those drugs not be drugs that are expensively patented by American multinational corporations yet the people on whom or among whom - within the community with clear and informed or not - the research was done and who contributed greatly to its success through their cooperation and participation cannot afford those drugs. We have seen these things happen before. Last but not least, in terms of treaty making step by step, we really need to engage the Departmental Committee on Administration and National Security of this House as well as the Departmental Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations to look as a package, maybe on a yearly or a two year basis to see what types of agreements are being proposed to our different Ministries. These include the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Trade. They should look at what approach we can take to go to these engagements with our international partners. Here, I am thinking of a situation whereby, here we are passing the threat reduction agreement. A few months ago, we were ratifying the agreement between Kenya and British forces in Laikipia. We have talked about human rights violations up north. What is the role of the British? What are the compensations to the local community? What is the right rate to pay for their occupation of that land? What are their environmental obligations to clean up things like depleted uranium that is used in their practice and war games? This is the same thing we need to do here. We know that the US has a new President, Donald Trump, whose approach and priorities definitely, will not be about Africa. But under Presidents Bush, Clinton and Obama, Kenya enjoyed a very good relationship with the US. Many of us are friends of the US. I got my undergraduate degree and Master’s degree in the US. I appreciate all the great things that a 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."
}