17 Feb 2022 in Senate:
If for two years anybody with that qualification cannot get a certificate, it means they cannot get hired or job opportunities. When I led my Committee to the Middle East, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arabs Emirates (UAE), they told us they love Kenyans. There are 88,000 Kenyans working there. Unfortunately, some have gone through a lot of harrowing experiences in domestic work. They have been asking Kenya for a Bilateral Labour Agreement (BLA) on skilled workers. They want engineers, doctors, cobblers, masons and electricians, because they are building a new city. In that new city, the ...
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17 Feb 2022 in Senate:
Our Government has been dragging its feet on signing the BLA between Kenya and Saudi Arabia, yet we cannot provide jobs here. We are a country that is seen as a labour exporter. This country does not have oil. The experiment that happened in Turkana has not yielded much. We do not have gold. Our biggest resource is not under the ground; it is above the ground; it is our people. To show that a Government is sluggish or unwilling to facilitate these people who have gone to school, paid fees and done everything, but cannot get accreditation, is extremely ...
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17 Feb 2022 in Senate:
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.
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17 Feb 2022 in Senate:
The Automobile Association (AA) of Kenya has been fighting this thing from 2015. It already has a template. The APP companies have a problem with the commission. Immediately you enter an Uber, 25 per cent goes to the Netherlands, but the drivers who I spoke to today said that they can leave that commission, but agree on a minimum pricing formula. If they set a good rate, you will take a taxi from here to the airport and pay Kshs600 in traffic, yet you know the cost of fuel. But they say that when one company sets a good rate ...
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17 Feb 2022 in Senate:
Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. Sen. Kasanga continues to distinguish herself as a champion for mental health awareness. We passed her Bill. There is no other legislator in the history of this country who has really stood for that sector as she has. She has enlightened us. She did a book and we said it is okay not to be okay. I note that she has congratulated Nairobi City County. I know the County is trying but actually in those 32 facilities we do not have enough staff who are offering those services. The Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) has built ...
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17 Feb 2022 in Senate:
Madam Temporary Speaker, when you called me, I was talking to some of my doctors. They have told me that it is not true that all these facilities are giving these services. They have said that there is no psychiatrist or psychologist employed under the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS). I have spoken to the County Public Service Board (CPSB) and told them that one of the challenges that we had, following Sen. ‘ Dr. ’ Kasanga’s interventions, I went to visit Dr. Frank Njenga’s Chiromo Lane Medical Centre, where I found some of the critical care specialists being trained. Many ...
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17 Feb 2022 in Senate:
They said that the scheme of service under the CPSB in the counties have not acknowledged or recognized careers of psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses and clinical psychologists. Counties need to do that so that they can be put in the pay roll. I am told that we have very few psychiatrist nurses. Currently, we have very few counsellors. I urge the NMS and county governments that in as much as they have made good steps – I always acknowledge the good they have done and being cooperative in many respects –
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17 Feb 2022 in Senate:
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.
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17 Feb 2022 in Senate:
let them now recognize all these cadres that are required and fully staff them throughout our hospitals.
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17 Feb 2022 in Senate:
We have a lot of issues with mental health even within Parliament; especially for leaders. People used to shy away from going to see a counsellor because it was thought that you were mad if you did that. However, that is not the case. When these services were introduced in our medical scheme because our colleague in the last Parliament needed to get that support, it became the highest consultancy that is being utilized by the Members of Parliament. It is not dentists or ophthalmologists whose services are more sought after. It is the mental health services.
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