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{
    "id": 986788,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/986788/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 42,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nyeri Town, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ngunjiri Wambugu",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13460,
        "legal_name": "Martin Deric Ngunjiri Wambugu",
        "slug": "martin-deric-ngunjiri-wambugu"
    },
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Speaker. I want to comment on the issue of the tests. One of the most dangerous things that we are facing as a country at this moment is the stigmatisation of people who are infected. When a newspaper runs a headline like they tried to do and tried to look like they are demonising leaders, and it is unsubstantiated, the message we are sending to the public is a message of fear. Even as we talk about headlines, I think it is also important for us to start figuring out how we are going to speak to the Executive. We must be very careful as we deal with people who are infected or those who are in quarantine not to make it look like COVID-19 is first and foremost a crime. Secondly, I got a message from some people in my constituency where it is starting to look like quarantine is becoming a punishment. The problem about that is that we are facing a very real threat of people who have symptoms refusing to go for treatment because of the stigma of COVID-19. As a House, it is our responsibility to help the country deal with this disease in terms of social management. The kind of dangerous headlines that the media has run and even the actions that have been taken by people out of ignorance are also making the whole idea of management of this disease complicated. As long as you make it look like getting the disease is going to remove you from your family and get thrown into a place that you are not comfortable, people who would normally go to hospital will not go because they are scared that in case they are found infected, they will be taken to a place where it looks like a punishment and being taken with people who are being punished because they are late on curfew or because they broke a law. So, as a House, we also need to engage on the issue of how the management of infected persons and quarantined people is being done, so that we can remove the stigma of this disease. It is not a sexually transmitted disease. If somebody says you have it, you start feeling guilty. People are looking at you like “ wewe ulikuwa wapi?” We need to de-stigmatise this disease and we are the House which can do it. Thank you very much, Hon. Speaker."
}