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"id": 1016711,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1016711/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
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"speaker": {
"id": 13131,
"legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
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"content": "We said that it will be easy for us to tell because of their relationship with the banks. In the last financial year, a time like now, if this was your turnover, especially for those in the hospitality sector, whether it is restaurants or tourism, and you are able to show that because of COVID-19 your income has gone down and you are not able to keep your staff, then you get a Credit Guarantee and it can be a concessionary loan at very low rates. We are forgetting the number of people who are hurting from COVID-19. I am sure that Senators here--- I can bet that if the Senate Majority Leader gives me his phone, I will see messages of people asking for jobs and food. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, just walk across and go to my office. If you find less than 50 people at my door, then a Good Samaritan came and helped them. Every day, hundreds are flooding my office for unga and food. We are trying to donate. You will see Sen. Omanga always posting her donations. I do not post mine, but we are feeding people from our pockets. Where is the scheme that the Government issued, giving people Kshs1,000 or Kshs2,000? Sen. Kasanga should tell us about it. If there is one thing that gives human dignity, it is food, and you cannot lie about food. Therefore, we want to see economic cushioning. The mandate of the Committee is coming to an end, and I am sure they will get an extension. At this point, we want the Committee to start focusing on what the post- COVID-19 economic strategy was. The COVID-19 economic recovery strategy, which was supposedly headed by Cabinet Secretary, Hon. Kobia, has never given any report or announcement to the country on what we will realign. How are we relooking at our budgets? What are we doing with our counties? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, you heard the governors say that they want to shut down the hospitals. They forgot to tell us that they want to shut down hospitals, yet they had been given more than Kshs5 billion by the national Government. Where has that money gone to? Accountability must not take a back seat at this specific time. I want to thank this Committee because there is a lot to talk about. This is good work. We wish you all the best and pray that in his address, the President would consider the reports of this Committee, which are public reports and property of the Senate. That he would actually look through the reports, sit with the National Emergency Response Committee again and give them a summary of our reports. I speak to some of these fellows and I am sure that Sen. Kasanga has more information than some of the Cabinet Secretaries; I promise you. This is because they have listened to the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA), the private sector and the public sector and doctors. In some of the Zoom meetings, they were listening to actual nurses, and so, you have all of that information with you. They are the ones who should give that information. Finally, The Pandemic Response and Management Bill is a Bill that we toiled to make in this House. We received more than 200 submissions. We have members from every part of this country who came and enriched a Bill that would help deal with whatever pandemic that comes in future. I am glad that the Clerks-at-the-Table are listening, and this is on record. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}