17 Oct 2019 in Senate:
On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I was enjoying the submission and eloquence of Sen. Cheruiyot. However, the Standing Orders also guide us that matters before committees shall not be referred to while debating.
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17 Oct 2019 in Senate:
Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I rise to second this Motion that has been brought to this House by Sen. Nyamunga. She has a rich experience because the last five years before she came to the Senate, she was working to promote the interests of women and gender matters not just in Kisumu County, but the whole nation in her capacity as a Women Representative in the National Assembly. When you work with or for women, you tend to understand a lot of the things that make us human. While growing up in the villages, there were certain ailments ...
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17 Oct 2019 in Senate:
A lot of things have evolved. In the past, the old women with traditional skills whom we called in my language, nyamrerwa, used traditional skills that had been passed to them over generations. It was difficult for you to be born and just acquire those skills. Those skills were passed from generation to generation, from mother to mother. There are families that we knew that had the gift of taking care of sick people. It was not black magic. It was African traditional medicine. It was concoctions and infusions which if they were to be tested in today’s laboratories, would ...
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17 Oct 2019 in Senate:
Sen. Nyamunga in her Motion says that we need to come up with a policy that will ensure the community health workers are remunerated, compensated, motivated and awarded. We can use the Bill that was passed in Turkana County as a model to come up with legislation across the other 46 counties or a generic legislation which can be applied across the 47 counties.
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17 Oct 2019 in Senate:
There is a distinction between community health volunteers and community health extension workers. Whereas community health extension workers are employees of the county and are appointed and recruited by the County Assemblies Public Service Board (CASPB), the community health workers are not remunerated. That Act says that the community health volunteers shall be paid a stipend to defray their expenses.
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17 Oct 2019 in Senate:
Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I urge counties to think differently from that line of thought. I bring into focus Nairobi City County which is also working on a Community Health Services Bill. We had some pronouncements by the governor that Nairobi City County will provide insurance particularly National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) and National Social Security Fund (NSSF) coverage to their community health workers. I believe that this is the right direction that we should take.
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17 Oct 2019 in Senate:
If we were to pay 20 community health workers the minimum wage, it would still be equivalent to the pay of one County Executive Committee (CEC) Member. There are counties where governors have numerous advisors who are paid hundreds of thousands of shillings. Each has a vehicle, an office, a budget for tea and mandazis, for walking around the county to inspect projects and to accompany the governor. Is it better to have one advisor for health services or to break down the salary and finance an entire community health unit? My view is that a prudent governor will ensure ...
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17 Oct 2019 in Senate:
recognizes them. Unfortunately, the stipends that they have been promised have not been paid. We do not waste time in the Senate. We had to go to Kitui to ensure that we approve the Division of Revenue Bill, the County Allocation of Revenue Bill and the Cash Disbursement Schedule. The National Treasury released money. So, why have community health workers not been paid a small stipend that they have been promised? While they are not paid, it does not mean that the governor’s vehicles are not moving; they are moving and their hospitality issues are going on. So, let us ...
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17 Oct 2019 in Senate:
Another critical issue is training. That woman who used to treat my boils, tsetse fly bites, coughs and small problems when I was growing up did not probably go into formal education. Are we going to come up with a policy that will say that a community health worker is one who has gone to Form Four or formal schooling? Probably not, because there are certain skills that our people have that cannot be obtained in school. So, we should also make sure that there is some flexibility to incorporate those who have been practicing traditional medicine for ages.
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17 Oct 2019 in Senate:
Again, should all medicine and healthcare provision be subject to modern concepts? ‘Modern’ here means Western concepts, where you have prescriptions from pharmaceutical companies owned by global multinationals. Can we resort to things like the neem tree, which has medicinal properties? Can we resort to other organic cures that our people have been using for ages? Again, we must allow our community health workers to use indigenous knowledge and resources in rendering that service.
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