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{
    "id": 874002,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/874002/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 285,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nairobi CWR, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Esther Passaris",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12475,
        "legal_name": "Esther Passaris",
        "slug": "esther-passaris"
    },
    "content": "combat extremism and pain that leads to extremism and if we want people to have hope, we have to start with the pain point. There is nothing that is more painful than lack of dignity like when a man has to steal his child from a hospital so that he can take her home because he does not have money. We need to investigate some of the problems of the Government. Linda Mama should have taken care of that child. Why did it not? It is because it provides Kshs17,000 which is inadequate. If we want to provide free maternity, let us understand everything around it. Let us understand that some children will be born by caesarean section, some will have complications and will be born premature and let us do it holistically and correctly. Let us not discriminate between the one who has a child and gets out in two days from the one who has a child and gets out after three weeks and becomes a detained child and mother. Even before I became an elected leader I was dealing with detained women in hospitals. In December 2017, I ran a campaign to release detained patients. The President actually released detained patients from Kenyatta National Hospital. There were 400 patients and Kshs15 million was written off. But what about today? If you ask for statistics on detained patients and detained bodies… We have authorities from our courts saying it is illegal, we have a letter from the Director of Medical Services saying that you cannot detain a body or detain a patient yet our hospitals do that. We cannot start telling private hospitals not to detain bodies and patients when our own public referral hospitals are doing exactly the same thing. We write off so much debt from corruption when it comes to big institutions like the Coffee Board of Kenya and Mumias Sugar Company. We have written off billions of debt because of corruption. Why do we not start by looking at how much we need to put in our Budget to cater for those who are unemployed and cannot afford medicare. We also need to look at the NHIF. Most families do not have the Kshs500 for NHIF. What do have to do to ensure that people take cover whether it is a funeral, NHIF or medical cover? All in all, what Hon. Mohamed Ali has done by bringing this Motion to the Floor of the House is important. It is going to save many Members of Parliament from the plight of having to say no to some of the families. We cannot afford and people think the Hon. Member does not want to help. It is not that he does not want to help you, but he cannot and it is not his duty to pay hospital bills and education bills where bursaries do not cater for such. We have to have a system that works and has to work for everybody. It should not be discriminatory because our Constitution says that every citizen has a right. Right now, I am a Member of the Departmental Committee on Health. We will call for the information. I hope the Cabinet Secretary and Principal Secretary are going to look at the bodies and patients that are being held and make a sustainable budget over the next few years. While we are giving universal healthcare, we need to understand the makeup of our citizens. What is the pain point? Where is the suffering? Why are Kenyans not buying into NHIF? They are unemployed. If you are unemployed, you are looking for food, you are not looking to pay for a medical service. So, once we get to register our Kenyans and we get to know who is unemployed, we should make sure that unemployed citizens can access good medical services."
}