Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1032942,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1032942/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 206,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) James Nyikal",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to respond to the President’s Address on the state of our nation. The President correctly said the nation is strong, resilient and breaming with the promise of an even brighter future tomorrow. He also correctly identified the major challenges that we face as a country. I will only consider one of the major challenges; the challenge of the Coronavirus pandemic and the implementation of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) - our attempt to get every Kenyan to access healthcare that they need, when they need it and at a cost they can afford regardless of their economic status. This is a challenge and the President has attempted to address it. However, there are some major challenges that have been revealed by the Coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic has revealed the weakness of our health systems, particularly the management of human resource - those are the people who look after our patients, from the health worker who prevents diseases to the specialist at a Level 4 hospital and above that looks after patients especially in the era of COVID-19 when we need care, Oxygen and ventilation. The greatest challenge, and we must address it if we want to combat COVID-19 and achieve UHC, is the coordination between the national Government and the devolved county health systems. This is a constitutional provision that we have not implemented. The Constitution provides that in case of a devolved function, the national Government, in this case the Ministry of Health, has the mandate of policy and standards while the county governments have the mandate of implementation. The critical issue here is that, that has not been implemented. It is, therefore, not possible to have uniform provision of services and to coordinate services. Let us face it. Can the national Government, through the Ministry of Health, walk to a county and say a policy or standard is not being adhered to without the governors saying that is interference in a devolved function? The performance of the health function is so varied in different counties and there can only be one reason for the variance. It is because we have no uniform and harmonised policy and strategies. These should come from the national Government. The policies and strategies are there on paper, but it has not been possible to actually implement them. This is why health workers are crying for a constitutional health services commission. They believe that the commission will have the strength to implement the harmonisation that is required in handling their affairs efficiently, fairly and with consideration. If we want to progress as a country, we must look at the Constitution again. The main thing, in my view, is how to harmonise operations between the national and county governments. 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."
}