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{
    "id": 905699,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/905699/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 160,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "debate on whether political and economic rights and right to representation would mean that you can still run for public office, even when you have been adjudged to be of unsound mind. However, I believe that, that is not the intention of this Amendment Bill. The other very critical component of this Amendment Bill is that persons with mental illnesses shall have the right of access to medical insurance for treatment from public or private health insurance providers. I am not certain whether the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) has expanded its scope of cover to mental illnesses. However, I know that the Fund has attempted to be innovative and expanded their scope of cover areas, including In-vitro fertilization, cancer and other congenital diseases. I hope that they are taking note. In the event that the scope of cover does not expand to mental illness, this would be the right time for them to do it, even before this amendment is enacted. There are two groups of people that have been discriminated against by medical insurance providers. Those are persons with mental illnesses and elderly persons in the society. You can pay your medical insurance premiums consistently for 40 or 50 years, but when you hit a certain age, you will find medical insurance providers giving you a cold shoulder. Although we are now asserting the rights of persons with mental illnesses, we must also assert the rights of elderly persons in society. I am not implying that there is a similarity between elderly persons and persons with mental illnesses, but I am just saying that they have been discriminated against for a long time by medical insurance providers. Further, this Bill attempts to define the obligations of county governments. It is clear that most of the hospitals in counties, from Level Two, Level Three and Level Four have not put up the dedicated units for care, treatment and rehabilitation of persons with mental illnesses. This Bill will make it mandatory for county governments and county hospitals, from Level Two, Level Three and Level Four to set aside dedicated clinics to offer outpatient services for persons with mental illnesses. Again, the Bill intends that county governments shall offer rehabilitation programmes and proactive health interventions at county levels to deal with some of the underlying causes of mental illness. There is an observation that some of us who travel to the western part of Kenya make. When you travel from Kisumu City to Maseno and get to Luanda, there seems to be a very high density of persons with mental illnesses in that small town called Luanda. It could be attributed to the dominance of a herb called cannabis sativa, which is consumed in copious---"
}