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{
    "id": 907497,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/907497/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 298,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, Section Five in of this Bill is very important to me because under Clause 2(c), it proposes the duties and the things that the national Government must do one of which is to provide the necessary resources for provision of mental health care and treatment at national referral health facilities. Madam Temporary Speaker, as a country we are trying to increase the number of national referral health facilities. We hope that the passage of this Bill will make it mandatory for the Government to expand the number of mental health clinics and health facilities. Madam Temporary Speaker, I have had many friends who have had the unfortunate experience of having a mental breakdown caused by one thing or the other. It is well known that Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital is the only hospital that treats patients with mental health illnesses. Mathari Hospital has already been stigmatized. On many occasions, you will find people telling each other: “That one deserves to be taken to Mathari.” This is considered to be an insult and yet this is just a hospital like any other for instance a hospital treating heart ailments or any healthcare service that you may access. By providing the necessary resources, the national Government shifts from just being a policy creator to also directing and channeling resources. If you read through this year’s Budget Policy Statement which will be laid before the House, you can be sure that a significant amount of money will be allocated to the Ministry of Health; perhaps way little compared to the amount of money we send to the counties. The question that has been at the back of many people’s minds is: What does the national Government do with the funds that are left at Afya House and yet we know that primary health concerns have all been devolved to the county governments? Under this programme of universal healthcare, we shall be ensuring that we make healthcare more accessible to as many citizens as possible. Madam Temporary Speaker, this is a very important proposal because it gives them the leeway to ensure that the money that remains at Afya House is not just used for people to go for seminars and drafting policy papers that do not have direct benefit to the citizens of this country. Two or three years after the passage of this Bill, we shall check under the implementation framework to know how many other mental healthcare facilities at the national referral hospitals will have been created. The same is also expected of our county governments."
}