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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kingi",
"speaker_title": "The Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. Olekina, proceed."
},
{
"id": 1522073,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1522073/?format=api",
"text_counter": 79,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 407,
"legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
"slug": "ledama-olekina"
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, let me appreciate Sen. Chute briefly for bringing an important Statement. The last time I heard of black fever was when I was looking at countries like India. That is, actually, where it originated. The disease is predominant in areas where there is no healthcare, poor nutrition and housing. What does that tell us? I am a Member of the Committee on Health. My Chairman is also right here, that is the distinguished Senator for Uasin Gishu County. We push for money to go to county governments. Why are our people still poor in the 21st Century? Why do we have malnutrition? If you contract black fever, your cough does not end. If you get any small disease, you die. This Statement is important because it now awakens us, as the Senate, to follow through on the money that we send to the counties. The Senate Majority Whip has clearly indicated that the money is being diverted to other things. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1522074,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1522074/?format=api",
"text_counter": 80,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 407,
"legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
"slug": "ledama-olekina"
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"content": "We are talking about affordable housing. That should happen in areas with poor housing facilities. The parasite spreads fast because of dust. If you have poor housing facilities, it can easily kill everyone. What is happening in our northern counties will not stop there because this parasite thrives in tropical environments. It will spread to Mombasa, Narok, Machakos and everywhere. We must take this seriously. We cannot have our population dying in the 21st Century because of black fever. Mr. Speaker, Sir, some of us subscribe to political parties that, for many years, have been supporting poor economies. Looking forward, I want my political party to bring economic emancipation of our people. Our people must be emancipated from poverty. Very soon Kala-azar or black fever will be in Kilifi. Is that what we want for our counties? I support Sen. Chute. I want to assure him that as a Member of the Committee on Health, together with my Chair who is here, we will investigate that. We will look at all the health facilities in Marsabit County and do a proper audit trail of the money. Before the United States of America (USA) says that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is taking their money, and before the Department for International Development (DFID) does the same, we should know what is at risk. This is what we were discussing this morning when we were considering the Budget Policy Statement (BPS). Additional allocations normally go to support these hospitals. Hospitals in the counties were getting a lot of money to improve their health facilities. This House passed a law, where instead of each county developing its own Fund to enable use of Own Source Revenue (OSR), the law now allows all counties to use a Revolving Fund to improve those hospitals. Sen. Chute should have sought for an ad hoc committee, working closely with the Committee on Health, comprising many Senators so that we resolve that problem. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Senate Majority Whip has always told me that prevention is better than cure. If we do not attack the black fever, follow all the symptoms and stop it very soon, all of us will be standing here and saying we lost a relative because of black fever. Let us not wait for that. I thank you."
},
{
"id": 1522075,
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"text_counter": 81,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kingi",
"speaker_title": "The Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Proceed, Sen. Mandago."
},
{
"id": 1522076,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1522076/?format=api",
"text_counter": 82,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Mandago",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13577,
"legal_name": "Kiplagat Jackson Mandago",
"slug": "kiplagat-jackson-mandago"
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, firstly, let me thank Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale, the Senator for Kakamega, for educating the nation on the effects of Kala-azar if it goes unchecked. I agree with my colleague, Sen. Olekina, that county governments must apply the money where it matters most. We would have expected the Governor of Marsabit to declare a state of emergency and ensure that he initiates prevention programmes, so that the population in the county is not further exposed to the risks that have been said. I am also happy to note that part of the prevention of this disease is through proper housing and the Government is rolling out affordable housing programme. Sen. Chute contributed immensely in the Committee on Land, Environment and Natural Resources about affordable housing in rural areas. We thank him for that. That was foresight and it is part of what is going to prevent this. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1522077,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1522077/?format=api",
"text_counter": 83,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Mandago",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13577,
"legal_name": "Kiplagat Jackson Mandago",
"slug": "kiplagat-jackson-mandago"
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, allow me to also comment on the Statement by Sen. Olekina on the issue of KEMSA and distribution of drugs. Part of the challenges that we have seen in the past with KEMSA is the process of repackaging drugs when they are sent to counties after requisitions are made. That process has resulted into losses of certain quantities of drugs. The other challenge that we have seen, which emanates from county staff in the health sector, is requisitioning of drugs that can only be prescribed by consultants or health workers in Level 1 or 2 hospitals. The current structure of distribution leaves room for pilferage of drugs. When KEMSA sends drugs which are supposed to be prescribed by consultants directly to health facilities which have requisitioned them - in most cases, they are very expensive - they do not end up in those facilities. They are repackaged somewhere in the middle and counties lose money. Secondly, I find a problem with that kind of distribution. Our procurement laws require that for every procurement, there should be an inspection and acceptance committee that ensures we have the right quantity and quality of what was ordered. Currently, such committees have been rendered useless because it is only health workers in the facilities who receive drugs, therefore, creating uncertainty in the quantity, quality and value for money in the counties. I will give an example in my county when I served as governor. We had already served for five years and we used to have challenges of lack of drugs in our facilities. We got a new County Executive Committee Member (CECM), who looked at the budget for health, which was Kshs200 million per year, and she said that that money was more than enough because we did not have a sick population in Uasin Gishu. We told her that there was a problem of drugs not being available in hospitals. We changed the system from distributing directly to our health facilities, to receiving drugs at the county headquarters. On the first day, there was a standoff between KEMSA, logistics fellows who were supplying drugs and staff in the county. They did not want the drugs to be inspected. We discovered that for a consignment we had ordered for about Kshs70 million, what we received was worth about Kshs30 million. Therefore, even as KEMSA thinks of how drugs are going to be distributed across the country, there must be mechanisms of making sure that acceptance and inspection committees are in place, even if it means at the facility level. Last time KEMSA appeared before the Committee on Health and informed us that they were in the process of acquiring an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. My problem with the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that the Kenya Medical Supply Agency (KEMSA) wants to acquire is the cost. KEMSA says it wants to acquire an ERP system at the cost of Kshs1 billion. Some of us have been fortunate to work in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector and we know Kshs1 billion can probably buy another four ERP systems. I think there is a problem of costing of ICT systems in Government. Probably because the sector is highly technical and we are very few experts, this cost of knowledge of ICT seems to be becoming very expensive at the expense of the actual software that is The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1522078,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1522078/?format=api",
"text_counter": 84,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Mandago",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13577,
"legal_name": "Kiplagat Jackson Mandago",
"slug": "kiplagat-jackson-mandago"
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"content": "required. I want to urge the KEMSA Board and management to ensure that they are cost- effective and make sure that every little saving that is available in KEMSA goes to drugs, equipment and pharmaceuticals that are key in delivering Universal Health Care (UHC). Therefore, I support the Statements by Sen. Ledama and Sen. Chute that there is a need for us as a Senate and not just as a Senate committee but also the Committee of the Whole to be involved in this process of oversighting counties. However, I want to assure Sen. Chute that we are going to invite the Governor of Marsabit and also visit Marsabit as a Committee to ascertain the status of health facilities in that county. We will do this alongside other difficult counties like Isiolo, of course, where governors have decided that they are not answerable to anybody. We shall remind them that it is their constitutional duty and it is our constitutional responsibility to oversight. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, Sir."
},
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"text_counter": 85,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kingi",
"speaker_title": "The Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. Dullo?"
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"id": 1522080,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1522080/?format=api",
"text_counter": 86,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Dullo",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13125,
"legal_name": "Dullo Fatuma Adan",
"slug": "dullo-fatuma-adan"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. Let me take this opportunity also to support Statements by both Senators. I think we have to be serious and candidly tell each other that we have failed as a country as far as health services are concerned. Yesterday I was not in the House, but I saw the way the Cabinet Secretary was struggling to answer questions on SHA, which meant almost nothing. Kenyans are suffering as far as healthcare services are concerned. We are talking about KEMSA delivery to the county referral hospitals. If you go to those counties and look at the shelves, the only drugs you can find are drugs that are not even required by the patients and are not supposed even to move. Those are the only drugs that we find on the shelves of those hospitals. As the Senate, we always talk about committees doing this, doing that. However, I think, Sen. Mandago, having actually interacted with your committee where the Governor for Isiolo has taken your committee to court, I know you have a budget for local travel or domestic travel. You need to visit those hospitals within the counties. Your committee should make a commitment. Now that we do not have international travels, they should visit the critical hospitals that we have in this country. The other day, I went to a hospital in Isiolo where a body was left to lie from 3.00p.m. to 9.00p.m. simply because they did not have gloves. You can imagine the hospital officials and the Governor saying the body was brought to the casualty. How can a body be brought to the casualty? Why would a body be received at the casualty? Which law did they apply? The bodies are received at the mortuary. Of course, I know very well the mortuary for Isiolo is not working. However, for a body to lie there from 3.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m. and somebody is arguing Fatuma is the one who has brought that body there, surely, should I carry the body on my back and take it to the casualty? Can you imagine in that casualty room there are even kids in the next bed crying, others are unconscious, and the body is just lying there? We have said over the years that the national headquarters of Ministry of Health (MoH) should be in control of the standard of the hospitals within our counties. That is not happening. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1522081,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1522081/?format=api",
"text_counter": 87,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Dullo",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13125,
"legal_name": "Dullo Fatuma Adan",
"slug": "dullo-fatuma-adan"
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, you walk to the MoH and complain about certain issues within our counties, it is like the headquarters are fearing the governors. They then tell you, oh, governors will say we are interfering with the running of the hospitals. Surely, where do we run to as Kenyans? There are no drugs, there is no service delivery. You can imagine, yesterday, a lady from a place called Olonyiro in Isiolo travelled over 100 kilometres to go and get service delivery in Isiolo County Referral Hospital. She was told there were no drugs. I had to send Kshs3,000 to buy her drugs in Isiolo. How many other patients are suffering? How many other patients, who do not have anybody to run to, are suffering? Our hospitals are actually in a pathetic situation. Leave alone county referral, the dispensaries, the sub-county hospitals, there are no deliveries that are actually safe. Women are suffering. They do not even get reproductive rights. Something needs to be done. I request Sen. Mandago, I know you are listening to me, I know you have a budget for domestic travel. Can you sample the counties that have problems? Please, visit those counties and ensure that you have put them actually on accountability. We cannot sit here every day and talk about this and that that are not happening in our counties. Something must be done. Somebody should be held accountable. You can imagine pending bills are not even being paid. Yet, if you look at the budget of counties, you will see that the health department is the one that is taking the chunk of the budget allocated to the counties. However, those counties do not even use that money. They do not even know where it goes. They do not know even where the drugs are even procured. Even the Chief Officers (COs) of the procurement department, they do not know how procurement of those things are being done. We blame KEMSA but sometimes you will find that most of the counties are even buying drugs across the counter. We have to have a serious conversation as far as health care services is concerned in this country. As Sen. Veronica was saying, most of us went to Government hospitals when we were young and even at an early age in our lives. However, today, you cannot find anything in those hospitals. There are no syringes, no panadols, no antibiotics - They are not there - yet, we are fighting always here to allocate money to the counties. I think we have to have a serious conversation as far as service delivery is concerned in the health sector. I hope Sen. Mandago and the Committee will take a lead in this to ensure that there is sanity in health care services in our counties. I thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir."
}
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