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{
    "id": 788617,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/788617/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 158,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Waruguru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13253,
        "legal_name": "Catherine Wanjiku Waruguru",
        "slug": "catherine-wanjiku-waruguru"
    },
    "content": "Thank you for the reminder. It has been a long while. I beg to move the following Motion: THAT, aware that cancer causes more deaths than HIV, TB and Malaria combined; further aware that 30 per cent of cancers are curable if detected early; 30 per cent of cancers are treatable with prolonged survival if detected early; 30 per cent of cancer patients can be provided with adequate symptom management and care; deeply concerned that cancer is the third highest cause of morbidity in Kenya after infectious diseases and cardiovascular diseases in the country; noting that effective treatment require availability of specialists, chemotherapy services, essential drugs for pain management and adequate infrastructure in treatment and avoidance of distant referral and delays in treatment administration; further, there is need for clear policies concerning terminal pain management, financial and human resources support and palliative care for cancer patients; this House urges the Government to declare cancer as a national disaster and establish a cancer fund to cater for cancer treatments and care. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, once again, I say thank you. We have been given a privilege as legislators to discuss matters affecting Kenyans every single day. As I said, cancer does not discriminate. Whether you are young or old, rich or poor, if you come across cancerous cells in your body, you know you are in trouble. WHO estimates that 8.2 million people die annually of cancer and the numbers are expected to triple even as we move towards our Vision 2030 in Kenya and even in Africa. WHO says cancer kills 450,000 annually and that, by 2030, 1 million people shall die annually because of various diseases out of the cancerous cells. In the recent past, the death rate as a result of cancer is very high. I believe having cancer diagnosis equipment and being able to treat the disease in our own homeland would be a great milestone. It will cut down treatment costs and, to a great extent, it will help us to come closer to serving humanity the way our Constitution anticipates it to be – affordable healthcare. Healthcare is part of the Big Four Agenda that the Jubilee Government is advocating. Globally, cancer statistics reveal that it will cause more deaths than TB and malaria. Thus, there is a huge global cancer burden in developing countries like Kenya. However, if detected early, and which we want to affirm this morning, the effects of cancer can be slowed. In fact, it is possible to reduce drastically the high cost of treating cancer, which is affecting our families. With adequate symptom management and palliative care, we can control what is happening in Kenya today. According to Nairobi Registry - we have only one registry in Kenya where the bulk of the data is collected from for our referral hospitals - we have only 39,000 diagnostic cancer-related cases which have been reported. You realize that this data is not factual. We have more than 39,000 cases of cancer patients in this country. We do not have a registry which can inform us reliably on statistics from the grassroots all the way to the national level. Why do I feel, as a legislator, that cancer should be declared a national disaster? I managed to have a meeting with one Dr. Miriam Mutembi who is a breast and cervical oncologist at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH). This was the finding of the AKUH. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}