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{
    "id": 759896,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/759896/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 176,
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    "content": "pass this Motion as we have discussed because it will lead to even dealing with our taboo problems. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, PWDs have been framed in various models. The initial model of disability is called the traditional model of disability which is about individual relationship. It is about how I see you and how you see me. However, there is a problem with that kind of model because PWDs are seen as objects of pity and people who require alms to be given. The power to donate resides with the giver and not we PWDs. That is a disempowering kind of way that still exists in many mindsets of our people. It is the basis upon which people would want to beg. In this country, people beg using the aspect of disability. You have seen people who put tomato sauce on their bodies and lie on the streets so that we give them money. Does it mean that that issue cannot be addressed? My answer is “no”. If we give NHIF cards to every deserving PWD, it will discourage such individuals from misusing PWDs for their own gains. Recently we saw some exposé on Citizen Television of people who beg in our Central Business District (CBD) and majority are from our neighbouring country of Tanzania. We take that as a lucrative kind of business instead of empowering the people. I want to tell the nation that there is no way of empowering somebody by giving them alms. That has never happened because it creates a dependency that can never be overcome. The picture we create is that it is easier for somebody to beg than go to work. If we are to empower our nation, we need to ensure that our citizenry, in this case PWDs, access free medical healthcare. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we know that the NHIF card has got its challenges. Sometimes people go to hospitals and they are just given basic medicine and sometimes the card is not accepted. Even with those teething problems, it is better to have the card than not to have it because there is nothing without challenges. We as Parliamentarians and honourable Senators feel very nice when we go to pay our medical bills and are asked where our NHIF cards are. Even if the card caters for Kshs20,000, that helps you such that you do not exhaust your outpatient allocation. That is the same benefit we should confer upon people of less privileged status than Members of the Senate. I think it can be done and that has been demonstrated. We even have situations where NHIF has enabled people to seek medical services outside the country. At some point, the NHIF had a total of Kshs4 billion that the Grand Coalition Government wanted to use to build a hospital. So, the more we allocate the cards to PWDs, we will not only be increasing the expenditure on health but also empowering the Government to invest in the very infrastructure that will ensure that people do not have to travel out of the country so that services are available here locally. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the problem with the insurance coverage is because of the fact that insurance companies are risk takers. Somebody may as well argue that they are risk seekers but the truth of the matter is that they calculate the risk. We thank them for that because they employ many actuaries to ensure that they calculate it. However, when they are confronted with a client who needs constant medical attention – the devil is in the details – they reluctantly engage such an individual because that person would claim as much more than they would make profit based on the probability of knowing who would go for certain services."
}