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{
    "id": 1033227,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1033227/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 216,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "North Horr, FAP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Chachu Ganya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 18,
        "legal_name": "Francis Chachu Ganya",
        "slug": "francis-ganya"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for this opportunity to contribute to the President’s Address. I appreciate the Address that was given by the President in service to our nation as he has done on many occasions. The President raised many issues of national importance. The Address was delivered during an extraordinary period in which we are faced with the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, he highlighted many achievements his Government has made in the last one year and a half. These are the Nairobi Express Project, the Nairobi-Mau Summit Expressway Project, the Lamu Port Berth 1 Project, which has been completed, and the Likoni Floating Bridge Project, which will be the first floating bridge in our country. He also mentioned the Kisumu Port rehabilitation works which has been completed and is now operational. Having highlighted some of these key investments on our infrastructure, the President also raised the issue of Building Bridges Initiative (BBI). This is an initiative that is trying to address critical challenges our country is facing like negative ethnicity, inclusivity, equitable development and corruption among others. The President mentioned that BBI will try to address these challenges and hopefully lay a foundation for a prosperous nation where tribalism, corruption and all negative aspects of our nation will not be celebrated, but there will be a strategy in our Constitution to address them. The Address failed to adequately address some issues. For instance, the impact of COVID- 19 on our health and economy was not fully addressed. I felt that since the whole year we have been dealing with this pandemic, the President ought to have come out clear with a message to the nation. The roll out of the Universal Health Coverage is welcome. Similarly, the far reaching reforms in NHIF are appreciated. However, I expected the President to direct NHIF, a Government corporation, to come up with strategies and mechanisms of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in our country, especially in terms of covering the vulnerable Kenyans who are under this cover. At the moment, civil servants and teachers are covered because they have comprehensive coverage, but other Kenyans are not covered. When they fall sick to this pandemic, they are on their own. I also expected the President to consider our frontline health care workers. He appreciated their work in his Address and that is welcome. However, I wanted to see tangible mechanisms and 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."
}