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{
    "id": 866681,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/866681/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 183,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 376,
        "legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
        "slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
    },
    "content": " I am speaking to the current one even though I support both. Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I am supporting the Motion on the Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital. I had indicated yesterday that the reason that I support it is because the international treaties and conventions that the country has ratified emphasise the right to the highest attainable standard of healthcare. This includes the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 43 of our Constitution also speaks to that. It is a shame and an embarrassment to this country that the country can invest a lot of money in building a state-of-the-art hospital and then it is left to go to waste because we cannot prioritise. The comfort we have as a country is that we think that people cannot litigate social and cultural rights. If you look carefully at the wording of Article 20 of the Constitution, any member of the public can sue the Government if it does not fulfil the obligations under Article 43 of the Constitution. The Government would show that it does not have enough resources. This is a situation where we can prove that the Government has enough resources. Parts of our resources go to corruption, which the Government knows and is not doing sufficient work to deal with. If healthcare is part of the Big Four Agenda and a priority of the Government, are we putting as much emphasis and effort into it as we should? It is a fallacy for us as a country to say that we are committed to those obligations such as the Sustainable Development Goal No.3 at the international level and even at the national level. We cannot say that we are committed to providing healthcare for everybody yet we have a state-of-the-art hospital that is going to waste. Yesterday, I gave the example of people in my own constituency in Suba North that have no access to healthcare. This morning when I was coming here, somebody called me from Kipasi Market where a seven-year-old girl is seeking for support for her mother who is detained in Homa Bay Hospital. She cannot get Kshs6,000 to release her mother from hospital yet we are able to invest billions into a hospital then let it lie idle. There is something wrong with the way we prioritise and deal with our issues. I am very happy that the previous Motion was talking about ICT. This hospital deals with the state-of-the-art ICT infrastructure. I supported the treaty that we just passed. I know I am doing it at the wrong time but I support it. With those few remarks, I will stop at this point and support the Motion."
}