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"id": 986711,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Zani",
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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I stand to support this Motion. They are actually two reports from the Ad Hoc Committee on COVID-19 Situation in Kenya. I would like to start by thanking the Senate and the Senate leadership, and the Ad Hoc Committee on COVID-19 to be specific, for the work that they have done. It has been very extensive. They went out and started this work at a very critical time for this country. It also gave us a chance as the Senate, and generally as Parliament, to infuse our thoughts and ideas into a situation and how to resolve it. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the reports are very comprehensive. The second Report is moving towards the Bill, which has already been published. That is a very good outcome, since it gives us a deliverable and something we can action on. The Report starts with a very extensive background, the establishment of the Committee itself. It moves on to give various case studies from the United States of America (USA), Mexico, Australia, Italy and Denmark, which gives us the basis. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the basis and some of the actions that have been taken by the various countries in this Report can be used as a borrow point for what we can do. I want to specifically look at a country like Mexico, for example, where Kshs3 billion has been put into research, Kshs2 billion into prevention and Kshs1 billion for medical supplies. This is the way to go. I think when Sen. Kasanga was seconding this Motion, she mentioned the importance of the funds, the contributions that are going into that fund, some of the areas in which that money can go to, accountability, the funding and the feeling of knowing that something is happening. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I just want to go briefly through some of the issues that have been raised. The five thematic areas are very clear, visible and important across the board. I would like to start with the issue of cash transfers, which is very critical. We seem to be approaching and trying different ways of sending money to the vulnerable. One method that I came across in these cases studies is the issue of cash transfers. If it is possible to identify where this money should go to, the issue of cash transfer can be solved very easily, since we have M-Pesa providers who can do that. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the other issue that I think is critical is that probably we have to infuse some of the messages that are already going out to the public. For example, since we have the message of ‘Stay at Home,’ we can strengthen it by not only telling people to stay at home, but say, for example, “stay at home and gargle with hot water and salt” or “stay at home and use lemon.” We have to go back to the traditional preventive methods that we know very well like steaming ourselves. This will also help various communities to prevent the spread of COVID-19, since they have already been doing that. On the issue of masks and masks etiquette, we could have on the frontline of the newspapers a clear message indicating about how to use the masks and where to get the"
}