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{
    "id": 1006645,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1006645/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 137,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "On the justification to use Ksh500 million in our KMTCs, the Principal Secretary (PS) explained that very well. He said that many of our healthy facilities which are supposed to be used to take care of sick persons in this country are already taken up by COVID-19 patients. Of all those patients, 80 per cent are asymptomatic, that is, do not show signs of sickness. So, they just sleep in our beds and there is no serious medical attention on them. We felt that it is a right strategy to get these asymptomatic patients hosted in KMTCs because if you release them to the general public, they will infect others and the effect may be so severe. So, we agreed that we can allow the Ministry to spend Ksh500 million to make various KMTCs across the country ready to receive these asymptomatic patients. Of course, on the Ksh1.5 billion, it is clear that the Ministry had to procure testing kits. Testing for Coronavirus is one of those areas which is priority for not only this Government, but also any government in the world. We still have issues with the KDF. This is an area that is very difficult for Budget and Appropriations Committee to dig deep into because of the sensitivity and the secrecy with which our security organs are treated. What we have said, as a Committee, is that it should be left for the relevant Committee, the Departmental Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations, which has the mandate to oversee this Ministry, to go dig deep and find out exactly what the Ksh1.9 billion was meant for. I am told it is for some intelligence gathering. That is beyond the purview of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. However, as a House, we have a duty to look into this matter even further. I just want to confirm again that there are ring-fenced funds under health that were not touched. But something came out which I think I need to talk about. In the course of our discussion, we realised that the Permanent Secretary (PS) owned up and told us that she was not aware that this money was ring-fenced until Parliament spoke about it. I remember in the 10th Parliament, Hon. Kimunya can confirm this, almost every ministry had someone designated as a liaison officer continuously following through what Parliament was discussing so that not only the approved legislation goes to the ministry but also that the ministry is very clear even on the debate that took place in the House. So, we advised the PS that she should have someone designated to be following what Parliament is discussing so that she can understand exactly, as the accounting officer, what Parliament has approved. This should not only go the Ministry of Health. It should touch everywhere. All ministries need to be alert and understand exactly what Parliament has approved and what it is meant for. We advised the accounting officer to move with speed and release the monies to various health institutions. The argument that some of these health institutions are devolved does not hold water because there is a procedure of releasing funds to those institutions. My final comment is on the Ministry of Energy. This Ministry told us that the auditing for this Loiyangalani-Suswa High Voltage Power project has been conducted. It is not awaiting to be conducted. It has been conducted only that the report is not yet out. I think it is because we did not have an Auditor-General. We still do not have an Auditor-General, so to speak, who would approve the audit report. Once this is done, we hope it will clarify and bring to light exactly what the mysteries around this project are. It is because we still feel there is a bit of lack of clarity in this project. We need to be clearer to know exactly what we are paying ad how far we are with the payment. I want to end there and just say that I hope this is the last time we are going to be treated to Supplementary Budget III. In future, if we have to overstretch, we should restrict ourselves to two Supplementary Budget at most."
}