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{
    "id": 1092166,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1092166/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 211,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Endebess, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Robert Pukose",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1458,
        "legal_name": "Robert Pukose",
        "slug": "robert-pukose"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to contribute to this very important National Hospital Insurance Fund (Amendment) Bill. From the outset, I want to support it. You know Jubilee in its second term came up with the Big Four Agenda to implement the UHC as one of those anchored in the agenda. In 2019, a pilot project was started in Nyeri, Machakos, Isiolo and Kisumu targeting a population of 3.2 million Kenyans. The Government intended to roll out this programme, but we know what happened after that. The Chair has said that the Big Four Agenda is continuing, but from the pilot project, we expected the programme to be rolled out in the country. Unfortunately, in November 2020, the pilot project came to an end. It was under the Cabinet Secretary, Sicily Kariuki, and after that, the programme was never rolled out anywhere. We have not asked ourselves what we achieved from that pilot project. The other day, I saw the Governor for Nyeri, Mutahi Kahiga, complaining that they are worse than when the pilot project started because they expected to register up to 750,000 people to the NHIF in Nyeri. The numbers have dwindled and people continued hoping for free services to be provided by the Government. Unfortunately, that programme came to an end and nobody went back to look at the achievements of the pilot project that we had rolled out in the four counties. In this Amendment Bill, the Committee is proposing the penalty to be reduced from five times to 10 per cent. I would have expected the Committee to remove the penalty especially during these hard times of COVID-19. Why should there be a penalty? If you have people paying through their hard-earned money and somebody losses a job and is not able to make contributions to the NHIF, the person looks for money and after two months or so, rejoins the NHIF because he feels the need for having it, why should we punish that person? So, there should be no punishment for rejoining the NHIF. I think that fine should be deleted altogether. 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."
}