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"id": 943830,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
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"speaker": {
"id": 210,
"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
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"content": "villages. They were doing everything that doctors of today can do, including teaching people how to prevent diseases. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I remember when we were young, they used to cane parents for leaving pools of water in their compounds and, therefore, breeding mosquitoes to spread Malaria. Things used to work well. They used to teach families how to kill rodents. You remember the famous joke that if you are a white person, you are referred to as a rodent officer. If an African, you are called a rat catcher. Those people were always there doing all important work. What Sen. Nyamunga is asking to be done is something so critical for primary healthcare and preventative approach for dealing with diseases in our counties. Today, and colleagues from counties can tell you, as we are preoccupied with diseases that are killing rich people, the ordinary man is dying from basic preventable ailments. The ordinary woman is dying because they cannot move for two kilometres to a health clinic for delivery. Children born in the villages die in their hundreds simply because there are no people to look after them, yet if you look around the country, almost every county has a Medical Training College (MTC), teaching and training nurses, clinical officers and dressers, and so on. The only problem is that there is nobody undertaking the use and utilization of these skills. It is important that our counties as they struggle with delivering healthcare, they should not be preoccupied with brick and mortar. You go to a county and are told: “My flagship project; I am building a seven storeyed hospital.” A hospital is not a building; it is a service, personnel, availability of advice and medicine that can help people. I remember saying on this Floor that during Gaddafi’s reign, Libya had attained one of the highest standards of health in Africa. There were no bricks and mortar; people were being treated in tents. A tent is set up in a Bedouin Village and everybody goes there and gets the treatment they want. Even if you go to marginalized counties, you do not have to go to Loiyangalani and build a five storeyed building to be a hospital; you need to have personnel and medicine to treat people. I want to urge that the outcome of this Motion be forwarded to counties to make sure that wananchi get value for money. Mr. Speaker, Sir, two years ago, I went to attend the funeral in Runyenjes of an old man who died at the age of 118. The history that the family gave us is that at 118, this man had never entered a hospital. He had only been attended a few times by a Bora Afya, the people who would advise you on what to do, eat and so on. He lived for 118 years. Today, our children are being treated at a cost of Kshs50,000 in a month, and they do not even live long. It is because people are fixated with cost and making money instead of treating people. In fact, when you look at the approach to UHC in this country - and I have said this to the Jubilee Government that does not listen - if they cared to know what Kenyans require--- If you go to the village, what is ravaging mwananchi is malaria, diarrhoea, dysentery and malnutrition. All these are diseases easily preventable. If people are advised, for example, to boil water before they drink, we will prevent a lot of diseases. Sometimes that water from shallow wells is contaminated because there is a pit latrine there. So, the seepage of human waste into water will cause diarrhoea, dysentery and other diseases. If you go to my brother, Sen. Orengo’s area, you will see people being The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}