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{
    "id": 1139208,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1139208/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 110,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Shiyonga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13181,
        "legal_name": "Masitsa Naomi Shiyonga",
        "slug": "masitsa-naomi-shiyonga"
    },
    "content": "We were informed, as the Committee, that the Authority has never been able to meet the requests. As a result, the counties are forced to supplement supplies through other sources, including the Mission for the Essential Drugs and Supplies (MEDS). We can recall that in 2019, the National Assembly passed the Health (Amendment) Bill without the concurrence of the Senate. The amendments were then proposed to favor the KEMSA Act, that is now law. As a Senate, we look into matters health since this is a devolved function. My amendments are in Section 4 whereby we seek to repeal a section of the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority Act. Counties are getting it difficult because of this. They have made it mandatory that if any county procures drugs and medical supplies from any institution other than the KEMSA, there is a penalty. It also provides a penalty of a fine not exceeding Kshs2 million, which is really not something that we can encourage in Kenya today. This provision has been a source of anguish for the counties which have fallen short of the drugs and the medical supplies. With COVID-19 right now, we have seen it a problem when it comes to the increased demand from the patients. This is especially when we were at the peak of the pandemic when the country rushed through KEMSA to procure more drugs so that they could meet the demands. This resulted in corruption because KEMSA had to look for alternative supplies. The tax payers’ money was utilized in a way that we could not understand the systems that were put in place and we still had problems. We had the cases in court. Even right now, we have the so-called the COVID- 19 millionaires. My amendments are very easy. They are just to give the county governments authority so that they can procure drugs at their own time and based on demand. When it comes to the standards of the drugs that will be procured by these counties, I know that we have the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KeBS) that takes care of the standards and the quality of the drugs that are supposed to be procured in the country. I urge that these proposed amendments be passed so that they can put the counties in a state where they are able to have data for most of the patients that visit various facilities. They know the diseases and conditions affecting patients from various counties. They will be in a better position to procure drugs and medical supplies without necessarily going through KEMSA to give them directions."
}