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{
    "id": 1014731,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1014731/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 249,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "rest signed. All of them gave reasons why they signed for the equipment. We have read the ridiculous explanation by the Governor of Kakamega County. Much as it may look ridiculous, at that time, we were approaching a general election. This is Kenya and Kenyans are peculiar people. Many a times, they are minimalists in their expectation of issues and how they appreciate different issues. It’s either that you are “yes” or “no”. I think this is a product of the 2005 debate on referendum, where since that time, Kenyans have always known all our debates to be about a “yes” or “no”. Just like the current debate on the Building Bridges Initiative where, despite the fact that there may be general consensus that there are things that we need to review, we are all being boxed into one situation, where you either support or you do not. It is a very bad culture within our country and I sympathize. Many of our governors found themselves in a situation whereby you either sign so that people in your county access medical services or you let people to die in our public hospitals. It is under that cloud that many of our governors went on to sign. Of course, that is not to excuse their behavior because they should have behaved like their colleague, the then Governor for Bomet, Gov. Isaac Rutto who stuck to his guns and said; “my conscience cannot allow me to sign these things that are being done here”. Therefore, what this committee has done, reading through the report, from the annextures all the way to exposing how the project was conceptualized--- Allow me to spend a minute in explaining that this is one of the most poorly conceptualized public procurement projects in the Republic of Kenya. The first point of call for county governments, if you want to buy equipment--- Surely, how do you sit at Afya House and make decisions on behalf of County governments? I can bet you that because you know how people are employed in this country, perhaps the people who sat in that boardroom meeting have never crossed River Chania to the left and maybe not anywhere beyond Machakos Town and yet they are making decisions on behalf of people in Hola, Lodwar, Kericho, Kisumu. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if the conception of this project was properly guided then the first cardinal rule that would have been observed is to ensure that you combine all our county governments so that you do a needs assessment course of what are the specific needs that each and every part of the country has. We know the kind of diseases that the people of Kisumu battle are not similar to what we battle in Kericho. Even in Kericho, the county that I represent, I know that different parts of the county battle different kinds of diseases at different times. Therefore, it is not a one size fits all situation, where you can sit in Nairobi and say I want to supply the whole country with radiology machines, dialysis machines and that kind of conceptualization. It is clear from the onset at conceptualization that this was all about making money. This has been properly brought out and, for that, I commend the efforts of our colleagues, that indeed they have spoken to the issues that many Kenyans have continued to ask over the years about this particular Report. The greater challenge that we have as a House this afternoon is: What do we do with this report because as colleagues have pointed out, the recommendations are wanting. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only.A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}