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{
    "id": 929289,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/929289/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 282,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Farhiya",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13179,
        "legal_name": "Farhiya Ali Haji",
        "slug": "farhiya-ali-haji"
    },
    "content": "pioneers of mobile money transfer. I am surprised that telemedicine has never been practiced in this country and yet there is an opportunity. Madam Temporary Speaker, the Ministry of Education is piloting a project linking remote schools to others which have better facilities for scientific subjects like Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics. In my county, there are some areas where the very highly qualified teachers will not go to because of the presence of al-Shabaab. Therefore, some piloting is ongoing, where a teleconference is held between a teacher in Alliance High School and a teacher in that remote school. That way, students in the remote school are in the same virtual class with their counterparts in Alliance High School. Since that is possible in this country, I do not see why telemedicine has been an issue. Madam Temporary Speaker, the only slight risk that I see in telemedicine is the sharing of personal data, because of the condition of a patient. Knowing that Kenyans are very smart in hacking data, the personal medical information can be accessed by unauthorised people. Other than that risk that I foresee, there is a lot more to gain by using telemedicine than if we do not use it. This is because in terms of medicine, the rural areas are still behind, even with counties having money to finance that medical officer who could have gone there with such great skills, like oncology. Considering how few oncological skills are in this country, they prefer to stay in Nairobi. However, where does that leave our rural areas? Madam Temporary Speaker, if we cared about Universal Health Care (UHC), which our President has championed, then telemedicine is the way to go. With it, you can even link up this information, up to the person who is involved in providing community health services. For example, if a traditional birth attendant encounters complications in a birth, they can use telemedicine to avert a worse situation. Education is reaching a different level in this country. We still have a long way to go, but we are far much better than where we have come from. We are at a level where a traditional birth attendant can communicate with a doctor in order to get information that can save the life of the mother and the baby. Madam Temporary Speaker, this is an idea whose time has come. We, as a House, cannot afford not to take up this Motion and pass it, because it is for the interest of all our people. This Motion takes medical care to the next level, where we need it to be. The UHC is one of the legacies of our President. I see telemedicine as the one that will take it to that level. Madam Temporary Speaker, I beg to second."
}