FROM TODAY MACHAKOS PROVIDES FREE

CANCER DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT

Today, Lillian and I are extremely happy to at last open the Machakos
Cancer Care and Research Centre, which is the first of its kind by a
County Government in Kenya.

Cancer is a disease that does not discriminate on age, gender, place of

birth or career. However, it’s management and treatment has favored the
rich in Kenya.

With the opening of this Centre, residents of Machakos County, registered

in the Universal Health Care Program will receive quality screening,
diagnosis, counseling and chemotherapy treatment and management
FREE OF CHARGE. Others from the SEKEB region will receive special
rates and all citizens from the entire country will pay a subsidized price -
the cheapest in Kenya.

We want to ensure that cancer treatment is for all of us not just a few.

Matibabu ya ugonjwa wa Saratani/Cancer sio ya matajiri peke yao. Kila

mkaaji wa Machakos, hata awe hana viatu kwa sababu ya upweke,
atapata matibabu sambamba na yule tajiri mwenye nyumba na magari
chungu zima.

Sote tuliumbwa na Mwenyezi Mungu na mimi Alfred Nganga Mutua na

Serikali yangu ya Machakos tumejitolea kuhakikisha Mwananchi amepata
matibabu ya kufaa. Hii ndio kazi Mwenyezi Mungu ametupatia.

I wish to commend our Machakos First Lady Lillian who has been to
basically every corner of Machakos County in the last six years, running
cancer screening sessions. However, after all these sessions, she would
come home slightly sad. Sad not just because the sessions identified
people with cancer but because that was just it - identification.
Today she is very happy because we can do more than just find out
whether one has cancer - we can treat and manage the disease and also
do it for free for thousands of our people who will no longer have to choose
between food and cancer medicines.

Let me reveal that last night she found it hard to sleep due to the
excitement of today’s launch. Now, the people she loves so much can be
given a new lease of life. We can do more than screen, pray and wish them
well. We can now treat and manage the disease.

It is quiet heartbreaking when you know people die just because they are
poor and lack affordable health care.

For example, one evening, Lillian and I were touring Machakos Level 5’s
emergency area. We found a woman with an enlarged and darkened breast
area. She had thought it was just an injury or muscle swelling problem.
She got referred to Kenyatta Hospital where it was established she had
cancer but had been too poor and too removed from medical care to be
diagnosed and treated. She died two weeks later.

This Machakos Cancer Centre is for women like her and many other
patients who can start treatment at stage one and live for many many
years.

This Machakos Cancer Care and Research Centre has been set-up with
equipment purchased by my Government. Lillian has also sourced
equipment from friends and well wishers including from Dr. Ng’ang’a of
the Kenya Cancer Association.

This is a Machakos Government project, fully funded by my Government

and is not funded by the National Government. It has cost us over 40
million shillings to set up what we have today.

This Centre can undertake the highest quality of diagnosis and provide
chemotherapy treatment.
Next year, we will include the purchase of a 300 million Kenya shillings
radiotherapy machine in our budget. Our strategy is to have several
diagnostic and treatment centers spread all over Machakos County within
the next three years.

We plan to partner with hospitals and institutions of higher learning and

research so that we can have experts working here from all over the world.
We will also utilize TELEMEDICINE for consultations between our doctors
and experts in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe and
our African continent.

For our research component, we welcome partnerships for drug trials and
new ways of management of cancer. If you have an idea, however crazy,
come to us and we will listen and evaluate. The key is to find ways of
helping our people.

We invite cancer organizations, development partners, national

government, individuals and experts to support us acquire more
equipment and improvement of our skills. Today is just the beginning.

Healthcare has been one of my top priorities. More than a third (32.5%)
of our Machakos Government’s current budget is allocated to health care.

I am proud of the fact that Machakos has the most comprehensive health
care system in Kenya which I also believe is the best. Since I became
Governor in 2013, there is no sharing of hospital beds in Machakos County
and no one ever sleeps on the floor. Our health facilities have been
renovated and expanded and quality standards set up. Even our mothers
at this hospital shower with hot water.
Our 80 ambulances, found in every administrative location, have saved
lives. In Machakos County, you are assured of an ambulance to provide
you or your loved one first aid even as you are taken to a health facility,
day or night.

So far 572,697 patients have been ferried by our Machakos ambulances,

including 256,762 mothers in Labour. The ambulances have also become
delivery rooms because as of this morning, 52,012 babies have born in the
ambulances on the way to hospital.

We are glad that in the continent of Africa, Machakos is second to the

Republic of South Africa, in emergency response time. For example, when
called to respond to a traffic accident, a Machakos ambulance usually
arrives in less than eight (8) minutes.

Our hospitals have been ranked the cleanest and most organized
government health facilities in Kenya and we have medicines and other
supplies available. We have increased the number of health workers and
are still hiring more. It is all about providing quality and available health
care.

I highly commend President Uhuru Kenyatta for his passion towards

health care. He came to Machakos when we were the first County to take
possession and use of new equipment and he has been consistent in
matters of health care.

His plans for universal health care should be lauded by all. Mr. President,
I know there are many discussions on how to fund universal health care
and whether it is possible to provide international quality health care from
the home to high tech hospitals.
I am aware it has been made to look complex and there are many interests.
However, I remember how President Mwai Kibaki announced one day that
there would be Free Primary education and a few days later it was
somehow affordable.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, Machakos is a good example that Universal

Health Care can work and can be affordable. It is all about political will -
the rest are details. After all, si we are now an oil producing country?

Rais Uhuru Kenyatta, usizungushwe na kuambiwa sijui NSSF, sijua

Capitation, sijui 20 % hii au hio. Sisi kama nchi ya Kenya tunaweza Kuwa
na mfumo wa matibabu kwa Wote bila malipo. Hizo zingine ni stories za
muhimu lakini uamuzi ni wetu viongozi.

Rais Uhuru Kenyatta, tuungane pamoja - Wewe anzisha mpango wa

matibabu bila malipo kwa wote, na hapo 2022, kwa uwezo wa Mwenyezi
Mungu, nitauendeleza nikiwa Rais wa Tano wa Nchi ya Kenya. Tumeamua
wakati wa mabadilko Kenya unewadia na mimi nituongoza ndio Wote
wapate haki Yao.

President Uhuru, I will work with you to ensure that we provide every
Kenyan, regardless of where they were born, access to free and quality
healthcare. As we say in Maendeleo Chap Chap, Inawezekana na
Itawezekana.

Finally, I wish to congratulate my staff, from those of the ministry of health

to all departments for the work they have done. Special recognition to
Waziri Ancent and your Chief Officers for the splendid work. I am lucky
that Machakos has outstanding health practitioners and we work as a
team.
I also recognize the amazing and incredibly dedicated members of the
Machakos County Assembly led by their very able Speaker Hon. Florence
Mwangangi for supporting this initiative. Truly, great things happen when
leaders work together. Na mambo bado.

It is now my pleasure to declare the Machakos Cancer Care and Research

Centre officially opened.

God bless you, God bless Machakos and God bless Kenya.

Dr. Alfred N. Mutua, E.G.H

GOVERNOR OF MACHAKOS &
PARTY LEADER OF MAENDELEO CHAP CHAP PARTY.

Thursday, 29th,August 2019