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"id": 98269,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/98269/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Konchella",
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"speaker": {
"id": 322,
"legal_name": "Gideon Sitelu Konchella",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Bill by Mr. Kaino has adopted 100 per cent of the current Malaria Control Act. He is seeking to repeal a Bill from which he has borrowed 100 per cent. So, as we look at the whole issue, we need to realize that there is much more that we need to understand. We would like the hon. Member to also understand so that he knows what he is doing. Indeed, other than for the establishment of the institute and the headquarters being at a rock in Kerio Valley, there is nothing else new. The Malaria Control Act is one among several Acts of Parliament - 22 of them - which are within the ambit of the Minister for Public Health and Sanitation who is here. I am glad she can listen. Malaria is being handled by a number of institutions. They include KEMRI, which is the leading research institution in the whole world, Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, local NGOs, University of Nairobi and even Kenyatta University. So, already, there is very wide management research within the Government set up and institutions in the issue of malaria, including NGOs. The Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation--- I am not speaking on behalf of the Minister. I am only looking at the statistics and having been there before. I can also contribute because I know a bit of what we did during my time in the Ministry. I am told that the vision of the Ministry is to eradicate malaria by 2017 through a number of areas like the universal access to treated mosquito nets. I am told that the Ministry is able, in the short term, to give almost every household, particularly in the endemic and epidemic areas, a mosquito net and of course, the indoor spraying which is ongoing using synthetic pyrethroids. I am also told that the pyrethroids have been enhanced from an efficacy which lasts for six to nine months. So, it is even becoming much more effective. I believe that is why the Ministry is trying to bring the issue of eradication by 2017. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, indoor spraying in epidemic areas of Nyanza and the Coast is very crucial because those are the areas with high infant and maternal death rates which the Bill seeks to address. That is Coast Province, Lake Victoria and western Kenya. Indeed, there are other control measures which have been used by other countries to reduce that epidemic. In Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa, for example, they are using DDT for indoor spraying. I know there are a lot of issues from the European region where we export a lot of goods. We are basically an exporting country in terms of flowers, fruits and vegetables. As a Government and a people, we must decide whether the lives of people are important or other factors are. Of course, we need the money. We need to export our goods and services, so that we can get money to grow the economy and fight malaria. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are, therefore, saying that the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation should consider a multiplication of treatments or actions that include the use of pyrethrum. I remember in the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation we encouraged the development of pyrethrum-based insecticides and research was being done along Lake Victoria by the University of Nairobi. I do not know how far that has gone, but we found it was safe because it is a commodity whose raw materials are readily available in the country. We can even develop our research institutions. The pyrethrin works with a potency of about six months. It, therefore, needs to be enhanced by adding to it acaricides if we are to attain our goal. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, looking at the World Health Organisation I think one of the biggest problems in the use of DDT and some of these products is the issue of disposal of cans, for example the ones they use for spraying. I think this is where the worry is, that they will be thrown away the way Kenyans tend to throw away empty bottles of water on the roadside. These end up as a lot of litter and the likelihood of residual chemicals draining down to the water sources and our plants. Here the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) must play a key role; we must allow NEMA to design and develop guidelines on the disposal of these chemicals, so that we are able to use some of these things for the sake of our people. You will shortly see that if we are able to dispose of these things, so that they do not affect our environment, we will then be able to use things like DDT to address the issue at hand. We are not saying that DDT is the panacea for this problem, no; it is just one of those chemicals that can be used to address the problem; it can be used together with pyrethroid and synthetic-based products. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, child mortality in this country has reduced by almost 40 percent over the years. We believe a further enhancement by the Ministry is likely to help. When you look at the statistics of deaths due to Malaria, you realize that we are not doing much. When you look at the death rate of children under five years of age due to Malaria is at 20 per cent. Women in their first pregnancy suffer a high rate in terms of abortion and other illness. In order for this economy to grow and the people to benefit out of these programmes, something much more needs to be done. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know the mortality rate of pregnant women has been given by the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation as being at 488 per 1,000. In other words, we are losing 488 women per year due to malaria. No country in the world should allow its people to die yet you are able to do something about it. This is why we need a multiplicity of actions to be taken for us to be able to save the lives of our people. We also know that as a result of this, particularly for young mothers in the endemic areas of Coast and Nyanza Provinces, when children are born you will find that they have low birth weight; doctors who are here will agree with me that unless a child is born with the minimum of 2.5 kilogrammes, its chances of survival are very low. Eradication of malaria therefore, will increase our GDP. Statistics within the Ministry show that we can actually increase our GDP by up to six percent. When you look at the problem at the Coast, the level of absenteeism by school children because of malaria is almost 50 percent. This means that 50 percent of children in Nyanza and in particular in Coast Province are not able to go to school to pass and get good grades so as to join universities. Therefore, help the people there to avoid the disease. So, we are actually consigning a large portion of the population of Kenya to perpetual poverty, sickness and deformity by not eradicating malaria. When you look at the cost of treatment of malaria per household, we are talking about an expenditure of Kshs1,600 per year per household on malaria regardless of whether the family is able to afford it or not, or whether they are working or not. This is why they have to go all the time to their hon. Members every time and tell them: âI have a medical bill, can you help?â. We can stop this impoverishment of the people by actually eradicating malaria. When you look at the loss of man hours in those endemic areas and the epidemic areas of Coast and Nyanza, you will realize that 17 million man hours, which translates into a six percent GDP growth loss, are actually lost because of malaria. So, one of the issues that we have to address is how we can help the people affected to be economically useful. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have done some work to find out whether the Ministry was going forward; I was made to understand that a number of policies are already in place to address this matter. These are: the National Malaria Policy, the document which is here, the Malaria Performance Review Programme, 2009, which addresses the spread of malaria and its effects on the people. There is also the Strategic Plan of the Ministry. These will be discussed better by the Minister because they are there in the Ministry and they know more about them. I am just highlighting this because I find that we have to convince the hon. Member to allow the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation to take over this Bill because---"
}