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{
    "id": 1032423,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1032423/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 332,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Igembe Central, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kubai Iringo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1574,
        "legal_name": "Cyprian Kubai Iringo",
        "slug": "cyprian-kubai-iringo"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Motion. Let me thank my brother, Hon. Kiai, for coming up with this Adjournment Motion. God is great that he is with us. We thank God that you are healed. I understand that there are a few others who have contracted COVID-19, but I pray for their full recovery. More so, I pray for Kenyans who are also suffering from the same. For those who have left us, to their loved ones, I send special condolences from myself, my family and those of Igembe Central residents. I agree with every speaker here that COVID-19 is real and it is here with us. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I also agree that we should also look for solutions and for a way to address this pandemic. We should avoid the blame game. Unfortunately, we are discussing NHIF today which has been a limping horse from the word go. When the burden of COVID-19 came in, it almost collapsed. That is why the CS was bold enough to say that. However, is it very unfortunate! He should not have taken that direction. He should have dug deeper and tried to correct the same, look for stakeholders, resources and any other ways. We cannot just tell citizens that they are on their own and it is up to them. It is up to the CS to sit with the county governments, assess what they are doing, what they have done, what they are capable of doing and what they are not doing. Let the CS investigate whether they have the facilities or they are there on paper. More so, let us focus on how we will save lives and how we are going to enrich NHIF, so that we do not just tell patients that they are on their own. It is like a father telling the children: “There is a lion in the compound”, and yet he is aloof and he his hiding under a tree telling the children: “You are on your own.” That is very disastrous. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, countries have to give priorities even in times of war or any other problem. You have to focus on the big enemy. As we talk, the biggest enemy in Kenya today is COVID-19. Because of the UHC which is one of the President’s Big Four Agenda of his legacy, let the Ministry focus 100 per cent on COVID-19 and see how to support NHIF to manage the pandemic. How do they support missionary hospitals and private hospitals to fight this pandemic? This is because, if you tell Kenyans that: “You are on your own”, it is tantamount to saying that you are ready to have your citizens suffer and die because you are a helpless Government. That would be very unfair for the Government and for us, as leaders. We should put our heads together - like the Chairperson has said that there is a meeting to deliberate on these issues. Let us go and contribute to the same and let the CS listen and retract from telling people that they are on their own. Let him go back to the drawing board and come up with a formula like the Ministry of Education has come up with a formula on how we are going to have our children back to school. The formula was spelt out. Stakeholders were involved, including the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), KUPPET and others. They charted a formula and parents were given 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."
}