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{
    "id": 1029547,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1029547/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 275,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "I hope now that we are still in the throes of COVID-19 and the pandemic is still with us, this is an opportunity for us to give this nation the Pandemic Management Bill that will guide emergency interventions. We have established emergency funds in all our county governments which are established for unforeseen circumstances and a pandemic would be one of those. Unfortunately, there need to be some legislative tightening so that we can empower counties to use that emergency funds or to establish other funds with speed to respond to pandemics. We agree that a fund for management of a pandemic cannot be established with the pace of the establishment of a Ward Development Fund. One is about life and death and the other is about efficiency of processes. We have also had an opportunity to look at policy across various sectors. One of the areas I feel embarrassed as a Kenyan and legislator is when it comes to our pronouncements on education policy. Prior to the return of our children to schools for those of us whose children are in the public schools or the local system. Every single day, we had a Cabinet Secretary for Education who is a distinguished professor giving contradictory and conflicting information about education policy. It is extremely important that Cabinet Secretaries and heads of Government Ministries to listen to their technocrats. We will be bringing questions to find out whether we have a national education board. This is the body which is supposed to advice the Cabinet Secretary on policy matters. It cannot be that the Cabinet Secretary depending on which side of the bed he has woken up on he decides the children are going back to school or not. Even the current situation where we have our candidates and class four in school, it is untenable. I agree with stakeholders who believe that we should not sacrifice education, particularly the class eight and the secondary school students will not come back to school. I say this with a heavy heart knowing that I come from a fishing area where girls get lured to drop out of school because the men around them and there are many opportunities to make money. All they need to do is wake up early, go to the beach, receive a few gogoros of omena take it to the market where they will make a margin more lucrative than them staying in school. During this pandemic we have lost a lot of children. However, the pronouncements and the policy positions did not help, but created further confusion. It has given us an opportunity to refine our policies around commerce. I am excited that COVID-19 has given electronic commerce the importance that it had failed to get in the past. Now everyone is doing deliveries online, payment has become cashless. We are seeing a lot of virtual meeting even in Parliament. Every dark cloud has a silver lining. On health, this is where we are learning the greatest lessons. Our level of preparedness in March was pathetic. Our level of preparedness seven months later is more pathetic than it was in the past. I listened to the Chairperson of the CoG today in the address at the Summit meeting where he said that all county governments have exhausted their bed capacity. Madam Temporary Speaker, as the beginning of this pandemic, many counties, including mine had zero Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds yet this House has been appropriating billions every year to go into the managed equipment scheme and to enable 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."
}