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{
    "id": 943821,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/943821/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 30,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Poghisio",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 202,
        "legal_name": "Samuel Losuron Poghisio",
        "slug": "samuel-poghisio"
    },
    "content": "treatment. Sometimes, because of laziness, referrals have become common. For example, people are referred to a higher level of attention when they can be dealt with at a much lower level. My concern with the current situation cannot be gainsaid. There are no drugs in many of our big hospitals at the moment. The doctors are busy doing their own businesses. There is absolutely no attention given to the people. I am saying this because of complaints that we have heard in many hospitals where there are no medicine. There is a Government policy to close down health facilities, for example, dispensaries and health centres that are not properly constituted. Many of them, were opened up to serve people, but some of them do not have the right facilities and staff. So, they maintain the hospitals without staff because there is a shortage of nurses and clinical officers. Many dispensaries were opened up and built using National Government- Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) while others were built by county governments, but they cannot recruit enough workers. A lot of problems in the areas that I am talking about are water borne diseases which can be dealt with by primary health workers at the level of a community health worker. They are basic. For example, if a community health worker knows the symptoms of malaria, he or she can treat it without referrals. Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is important that we develop this policies, especially for little children and mothers who have to travel long distances to get treatment. That is why I am supporting Sen. Nyamunga. We would like to develop the right policies for training, certification and employment of community health workers to enhance the emergency health service delivery in the counties. We need to facilitate the said community health workers with the necessary basic equipment. In late 1940s, the people of Pokot could not accept this modern medicine. It was necessary for them to get somebody who speaks the Pokot language and take him or her through training and send them to the villages for them to have faith that the medicine is good. For a long time, they resisted to take this medicine because they thought it was a white man’s way of destroying them. So, they refused it until they decided to train a few people who went to villages. It was the beginning of acceptance of modern medicine in those areas. As I said before, my late father, Mr. Poghisio, was one of the first people to be trained. That is, probably, how we managed to survive in those villages. I inform my colleagues that in the neighbouring countries, for example, Tanzania and Uganda, community health workers form the biggest part of their health staff. They have connected well with the local people. So, it is possible to do it in Kenya. Let us have counties pay for it because health is devolved. It will help to deal with the majority of problems in the counties. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I support this Motion and thank you for the opportunity."
}