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{
    "id": 882709,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/882709/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 237,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nyaribari Chache, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Richard Tong’i",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2611,
        "legal_name": "Richard Nyagaka Tongi",
        "slug": "richard-nyagaka-tongi"
    },
    "content": "super power. So, we need to manage our health issues ahead of time. It is unfortunate that sometimes we have given audience to things which are important but not very critical. If you do not have good health, everything else does not matter. If you do not have good health, nothing else counts in life. That is why as a country, once we get our health issues right, then we will be able to fix the concerns and the challenges that almost account to 50 per cent of our needs as human beings. When you are healthy, you can function properly even if you do not have enough food. When you are healthy, you would be able to do your duties as a normal person a lot more than when you do not have the health and you have the money. There are many things countries which have succeeded have done it well. They have given priority to health management and we all know prevention is better than cure. If we manage our health ahead of time, that can only be achieved by doing screening and this screening can be done in schools. If screening is to done in colleges, universities, public places including market centres, then we will manage a lot more but it should not be a one-off affair. It should not be a strategy where when we are campaigning or when our competitors are campaigning, they mobilise a few medical people to come and do a screening in a shopping centre. We need to have a strategic and consistent practice as a Government. We must have a policy in place to ensure that screening will not just be a one-off affair but a continuous process. People should know that every year or after a given period of time, there will be screening. We need to sensitive the community and the people so that they can appreciate the need for screening. Our people are scared of screening. When I was working in the insurance industry, AAR, one of the greatest companies in Africa, the hardest challenge we ever had was asking our members to go and do a screening yet we know that whatever it is in your system, you already have it. So, it is better if you know you have it so that you can manage it. Initially, people had fear about HIV and AIDS but when we did civic education, our people were educated and they got information. We all know information is power. They changed the attitude. Now screening has almost become a lifestyle but that is only at the higher level of the society. I wish to have a situation where this is cascaded downwards so that every other person in the society would be able to have an opportunity to do screening not because they are sick but because it is a good thing to do it. It is a way of preventing the health challenges which would come much later if you have not done screening. We have clinics which are being set up by the Government. We are happy that there is an initiative to have container clinics. My understanding of container clinics which are not still functional was to bring services closer to mwananchi. The way they are going to position those container clinics will somewhat help to ensure that the services are going to be accessed by a majority of Kenyans who will not be able to get screening done ahead of time. We need to come up with a policy and I am sure this Motion will be able to address that concern. Screening should be made free because if you charge people money for screening, not so many of our people will afford. Because of that barrier, majority of the needy cases will end up missing out on the screening and we know its importance. When that condition is detected at the formative stage, your challenges are less than when it is detected at a later stage, when there is a likelihood of another complication. I am hoping that the container clinics that we are having in the country together with other clinics that we have set up using the NG-CDF money will be able to help and address the concern we have as a nation. 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."
}