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{
"id": 1558952,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1558952/?format=api",
"text_counter": 192,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kitui Rural, WDM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. David Mwalika",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Our health facilities across the country are wanting. Many are not up to standard, have no drugs, and are often located far from the people in need. Healthcare is not just about money; access is affected by both financial resources and distance. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I believe that where you come from, the health facilities are hundreds of kilometres away. We need to work on this. Regarding social support, back in 2000, we had pro-poor programmes in the country, but those seem forgotten now. We introduced the Uwezo Fund, Women's Fund, and Youth Fund. However, the administration of these funds is lacking. The initial seed money is still circulating, yet the population and demand for these funds have increased. The Government needs to find more money to ensure these initiatives can meet the needs of the people. Additionally, the Uwezo Fund, Women's Fund, and Youth Fund are too many. Why can we not collapse them into one? We could allocate enough staff to manage the funds effectively and ensure proper distribution and collection. In conclusion, passing this Bill and establishing the Board should help address the challenges faced by social protection programmes in the country. With those few remarks, I support."
},
{
"id": 1558953,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1558953/?format=api",
"text_counter": 193,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Farah Maalim",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": {
"id": 16,
"legal_name": "Farah Maalim Mohamed",
"slug": "farah-maalim"
},
"content": " Hon. Saney Ibrahim, Member for Wajir North."
},
{
"id": 1558954,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1558954/?format=api",
"text_counter": 194,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Wajir North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Ibrahim Saney",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. When we talk about social protection, what comes to mind is cushioning people from vulnerabilities—mitigating the risks they face and strengthening their ability to rebound. This makes them more resilient and able to continue with life as it was. Where I come from, northern Kenya, droughts and famine have been serious risks to the lives and livelihoods of people. Pastoralists keep livestock for their well-being. With droughts and, more so, climate change lately, there has been serious concern about people’s adaptability to emerging risks. Social protection has been with us for some time. Relief food has been a common intervention, but has not been effective. Then came the Hunger Safety Net Programme, co- founded by donor communities. The civil society has been the driving force behind that programme. There has been a shift from relief food intervention to cash transfers, which has been a very effective way of responding to vulnerabilities and risks. Cash transfers have effectively eliminated cartels and corruption around the sale of relief food. The funds are directed to the recipients without intermediaries. While relief food only targeted the food component, cash transfers have addressed a broader spectrum of needs within a vulnerable household, including food, clothing, and medical care, although the stipend has been relatively low. This Bill provides a holistic approach to protecting people from vulnerability, abject poverty, and social exclusion throughout their life cycle, with an emphasis on those who are especially vulnerable: the elderly, widows, orphans, and those living in extreme poverty. I welcome this holistic approach and believe we need to strengthen it further by increasing the stipend provided by the Government from around Ksh2,000 to Ksh5,000. While this may not be sufficient, I believe it would go a long way in meeting the needs of vulnerable households in urban centres and pastoral communities. This small amount can make a big difference in the lives of those who are most affected. Social protection is all about offering a safety net for people who have lost their livelihoods. I believe there is no better way to uphold our values as stated in the Constitution— values of equity, inclusion and good social standards—than by ensuring that our marginalised and vulnerable populations are integrated into society. This Bill has come at the right time to ensure that social protection is not only left to civil society but that the Government also takes an active role in addressing these vulnerable groups. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1558955,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1558955/?format=api",
"text_counter": 195,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Wajir North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Ibrahim Saney",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Without taking much of your time, I support this Bill. I know my colleagues are on the queue."
},
{
"id": 1558956,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1558956/?format=api",
"text_counter": 196,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Farah Maalim",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": {
"id": 16,
"legal_name": "Farah Maalim Mohamed",
"slug": "farah-maalim"
},
"content": " Hon. Member for Bondo, Hon. Ochanda Gideon."
},
{
"id": 1558957,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1558957/?format=api",
"text_counter": 197,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Bondo, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Gideon Ochanda",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. As we legislate around issues of social protection, I want to believe that as a country, there are issues that we have not been looking at adequately, and we need to consider them. Firstly, in the modern world, after college, every young person starts to seriously think about his or her life upon retirement. On the contrary, in this country, many of us hardly think about our lives after retirement. If you go to the West and other modern countries, young people start looking at how they are going to be in society after they get old and retire. This means that we need to start looking at this issue through different processes. We have to place some element of education in the curriculum towards the end of college so that young people get to know that there is life after retirement, and that life is not in anybody's hands; it is in their hands. Secondly, when we are looking at this Bill, we are dealing with around 5 million people who are in formal work, which includes around 900,000 who work in the public service. It is the 5 million that will be talking about the issue of pension. This means that the rest of the population who are doing their things privately are not being covered anywhere in a formal way. Thirdly, when one is in formal work, pension has had all manner of problems. You get that if you were on a pension scheme, and when you retire, you do not get your pension. The processing of pension takes forever. These are some of the things that really need to be looked at. Another major concern is for the people who are not on pension. How are we looking at their lives as they get older in society? What is the Government doing with the larger population that is not on pension arrangements? As a Government, some level of education and conscientisation needs to be done at a younger stage, where young people start to think about their lives when they are no longer working. That is very critical. We need to look at it as we do our things. As we do what we normally do, the Government and agencies that are there are learning very little. We are constantly struggling with things that are very easy. We hardly learn or do them right. I remember in the last one or two governments, we were struggling with the issue of intelligence. The National Assembly allocated Ksh6 billion for three to four consecutive years for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) to identify the indigents in this country, but it did not work. We did not succeed. In those three years, that money was never used. We are now talking about it when UHC is dead. We never learnt from that. Also, we do not learn from what works. We are struggling with the structures of how to let the national Government functions reach the lowest level, yet we have had experiments. The National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) has done it. Despite there being these little scares here and there, the NG-CDF structure has given us a very good learning platform of how the national Government functions can reach the ground level. Constantly, this is never utilised. For example, there is the issue of cash transfers, but the question is, is that the only way we want to look at it? Regardless of this happening, it is good and working. If you individually track and visit the homes of the people whom you are trying to help with the Ksh2,000 stipend, you realise that they do not spend the money on themselves. It is spent by younger people like the grandchildren, who were left under their care. At the end of it all, the Ksh2,000 does not help these elderly people. So, despite it being good, are we able to trace and cross-check what exactly is happening? That is why the issue of older people's homes The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1558958,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1558958/?format=api",
"text_counter": 198,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Bondo, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Gideon Ochanda",
"speaker": null,
"content": "was critical, but it is neither being looked at by county governments nor the national Government. If we can avail an arrangement where older people can have food, water and proper clothing in every sub-location, we would be doing much better than the arrangement of transferring Ksh2,000, which we are not even sure whether the elderly people use it on themselves. Two days ago, I was amazed when I learnt that chiefs and assistant chiefs were taking Ksh1,000 from the elderly persons whenever they went to pick money in the initial arrangement, where they were going to the post office in the markets. Why can we not use the structures that have worked instead of seeing money go to waste? Why can the national Government not be firm and decide that its point of development is at the constituency level, and we have all these functions coordinated there? This way, we will be able to reach the elderly people. I am trying to emphasise that we are learning much less from what we are doing, be it failing or succeeding. We are also not building on the success. We keep repeating the failures. The national Government should sit and reconsider exactly what point they will place development at the lower levels of Nairobi. If they do not do that, we will keep having this problem where somebody sends circulars for the identification of indigents, it is done wrongly, and you wait for circulars, but it does not work. Some of these Government departments we are talking about do not have the structures at the ground level. They rely on National Government Administrative Officers (NGAOs) who have their tricks of doing things wrongly. These are some of the things we really need to consider very seriously when we are legislating on issues to do with social protection. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker."
},
{
"id": 1558959,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1558959/?format=api",
"text_counter": 199,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Farah Maalim",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": {
"id": 16,
"legal_name": "Farah Maalim Mohamed",
"slug": "farah-maalim"
},
"content": " Is the honourable Member for Meru in?"
},
{
"id": 1558960,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1558960/?format=api",
"text_counter": 200,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Meru County, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Elizabeth Kailemia",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to add my voice to this Social Protection Bill. I particularly want to talk about people living with disabilities. As I go round Meru County, I have realised that too many children are locked in houses just because their mothers have to get casual work to feed their families. It is very sad. The caregivers of people living with disabilities do not even have the slightest income. The older people need to get help, but I wish we also seriously consider the caregivers for people living with disabilities. They are not able to look for work because they have to take care of the children or the grown-ups that they live with. The other group is orphans. In the African setup, we think that orphans are taken care of by their uncles or their grandparents, but this is not the case. As we think of increasing the elderly people's stipend, the Ksh2,000 is not enough, we think about where the orphans live. That touches on housing. In my county, I have started a programme called “ Jenga Keja ” where we build houses for vulnerable people who have deplorable mud houses, which you can see inside from outside. I could not agree more with this Bill. I echo what my colleagues have said. The Social Protection Bill is timely. It should have happened like yesterday because there are so many problems. Members of Parliament have been caretakers for all the counties; giving money daily for hospital bills and school fees. They have also been offering other forms of support to their people."
},
{
"id": 1558961,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1558961/?format=api",
"text_counter": 201,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Meru County, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Elizabeth Kailemia",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Hon. Temporary Speaker, I support this Bill. Thank you very much."
}
]
}