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{
    "id": 1032450,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1032450/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 359,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nyeri Town, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ngunjiri Wambugu",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13460,
        "legal_name": "Martin Deric Ngunjiri Wambugu",
        "slug": "martin-deric-ngunjiri-wambugu"
    },
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I want to appreciate the kind remarks by Hon. Kiarie, even as I ignore the disparaging remarks by Hon. ole Sankok. I stand here to say something that will not be very popular. On 14th April 2020, six months ago, I proposed to this House that we form an ad-hoc committee because the challenge of COVID-19, I could tell we did not have the capacity to deal with it because of the effects it was having on all of us. Today, six months later, this House has not generated or initiated a single specific COVID-19 legislation. I remember when I made that proposal for the creation of an ad-hoc committee, I was told that the committees that existed had the capacity to do what needed to be done to deal with COVID- 19. I tried to raise the fact that these were extraordinary times and we needed to think across party lines and committees to deal with this issue, but we as a House - and I am also guilty because I am part of this House - decided we did not want to go that way. Today, I appreciate what Hon. Kiai has done. However, let us be honest. Beyond talking here today for the remaining five minutes, what else are we going to do about this issue? We do not have the capacity in this House as it is because the Departmental Committee on Health is going to meet NHIF. The NHIF needs more money and that money has to be allocated by the Budget and Appropriations Committee. It has to be found somewhere by the Committee on Finance and National Planning. We have the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government dealing with issues. We have the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries dealing with issues. We have so many ministries involved in how we deal with this COVID-19 pandemic. However, because in this House we do not have a single structure that brings all those committees together to develop one solution, we have been unable to provide solutions to COVID-19. That is what the ad-hoc committee was supposed to do."
}