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{
    "id": 838808,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/838808/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 162,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Makueni, WDM-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Daniel Maanzo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2197,
        "legal_name": "Daniel Kitonga Maanzo",
        "slug": "daniel-kitonga-maanzo"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I really want to agree with you that matters of health are very serious and that all of us, at one point or another, deal with health issues. This comes under the background of the new Constitution which has provisions dealing with health. Following the Constitution, there was a major amendment of the health law and we ended up with the law of 2017 which still turned out not to be sufficient. Owing to devolution, now health infrastructure and medication is being done at the counties. There is still a role for the national Government especially when it comes to policy and its implementation. I have looked at the proposed amendments and part of them is to make sure that we synchronise the laws which were not in conformity with the Constitution, like the use of the CS, previously a minister, is quite common in this amendment. Bearing in mind the protocols of the East African Community, as a member State, we need to have laws which synchronise with other health laws in the region. As a region with similar climate, we have a peculiarity of health issues and diseases which can be transferred from one region to another by movement of animals or people. There should be a common protocol on how we handle matters related to that, such as the Yellow Fever. This Bill constitutes of 10 different statutes which we are supposed to amend, beginning with the Radiation Protection Act, which is a new technology now being used. Radiation eventually affects human beings in one way or another if not properly used. Now there are strict laws so that radiation can be used properly, even when it produces energy or is being used for medical purposes. We also have the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Act. All of the Acts have to be amended so that they are consistent with each other because this is a regime under which a law applies to the medical practitioners. For the common person in the village, they are unable to tell the difference between a doctor and a nurse or a technologist. Everybody they find in a health facility, they just call them a doctor. There is quite a big difference. All this has now been featured in the Nurses Act and the Kenya Medical Training College Act. We have quite a number of colleges being built in the country. These colleges do not train doctors, but nurses. At the same time, there are nurses who are graduates and others who are diploma holders. That is why we came up with the Mwongozo Code, a code of conduct and governance, as the basis of making the law such that it ties up with issues of nutrition and diet. A lot of people end up losing their health because of the nutrition they are on. Some diseases catch up with people in old age because of what they eat. There are also issues related to HIV and AIDS and other communicable diseases which have come up. There is also the Counsellors and Psychologists Act, 2014 which we enacted. In total, you find that Parliament has been very much engaged with health issues for quite some time; actually since the new Constitution was enacted. Previously, there was a different administration. The management of this sector has to tie with the national Government and county governments. There has to be a link between those two so that there is a smooth flow of activities. The Clinical Officers (Training, Registration and Licensing) Act, 2017 also has to be amended so that clinical officers and other officers comply with this code of conduct. Medicine which affects animals eventually affects human beings. Regulation is key in all these Acts. It is a way of making sure that there is agreement on practice. There is a time there was a lot of issues with the training of technologists. I remember in the early 2000 to 2002, there were quite a number of court cases relating to some students who made efforts to study in this area and they would find that the colleges they wanted to go to were not licensed. They would be to school for two years, but their papers would not be acceptable in the market. There would be a lot of arrests 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."
}