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{
    "id": 92929,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/92929/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 292,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kathuri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 38,
        "legal_name": "Emilio Mureithi Kathuri",
        "slug": "emilio-kathuri"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for noticing that I have not contributed on the Floor. I want to start by outright supporting this Vote. If we have to realize Vision 2030, this is one of the key Ministries that must be supported. It must be anchored to the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Agriculture as one of my colleagues has mentioned. It must also be anchored to the Ministry of Water and Irrigation and the Ministry of Livestock. At the end of the day, without good health, we cannot create wealth. I think it is very important to mention that so that when the Minister is pushing for her staff members to be officials of all those Ministries on matters to do with hygiene, education, agriculture, livestock, dairy farming and all that, we need to see an element of public health so that we can achieve our objectives. Without enough water, there is no way the Ministry will be able to realize its objectives of hygiene. Without quality production of milk, we will always be treating diseases; without proper feeding, we will always be treating malnutrition. I think it is very important for the Minister to note that and push for staff of the Ministry to be anchored in every other Ministry that has something to do with the quality of health of a human being. While it is very important they are anchored, they have to realize why; like in the Ministry of Education, schools are closing daily because of toilets. As we are talking, a market in Embu called Kithimu is closed because of toilets. When you approach the councilor or the Clerk to tell the community that your market will be closed, they cannot do it effectively. It is the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation employees who should do that so that they can signal to the community that they are going to suffer irreparable damage if they do not adhere to the requirements of the Ministry. This can only be possible where they are anchored in every other meeting that takes place in the community. I would want to say the Ministry should embark on a very aggressive campaign to ensure that the Ministry of Medical Services does not make you carry all the burden. As we talk, public health institutions, health centres and dispensaries charge Kshs20 to open a card while hospitals charge Kshs50. Naturally, what happens is that every other community member who is sick is offloaded to the health centres and at the end of the day, you do not have enough facilities when these sick people ought to have gone to the hospital but they prefer to go to the health centre because you charge Kshs20 like in my place, when the big hospital is charging Kshs50. This difference ends up heaping all the burden on the health centres and they end up not being able to deliver services as you would have wanted. There are some health centres which are more of hospitals because of where they are located. We do not have ambulances, we do not have staff quarters yet, they operate at night. An example is Kalau Health Centre which is next to the forest and 25 kilometres away from Embu Town. It is important for such health institutions to be addressed."
}