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{
    "id": 1139250,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1139250/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 152,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Halake",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13184,
        "legal_name": "Abshiro Soka Halake",
        "slug": "abshiro-soka-halake"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, as I rise to support, I congratulate Sen. Shiyonga for this timely and well thought-out amendment Bill about the KEMSA. As she has articulated, health is a devolved function and any legal or legislative framework that seeks to entrench devolution and ensure that services are taken to the frontline of service provision should be supported. So, I congratulate her for this thoughtful and well thought-out legislation. Article 43(1) of the Constitution of our country guarantees every person the right to the highest attainable standards of health. There is no way we can give the highest attainable standards of health if we do not have drugs in our facilities and the requisite facilities close to the people, so to speak. I hope that Sen. Shiyonga will consider that the requisite quality controls are put in place in cases where counties have to make bulk procurement directly without going through the KEMSA. This is because our counties are still young and their procurement processes may still be going through certain developmental and incremental strength in terms of capacity, timeliness, and human resource. As we propose these amendments, I hope that the requisite quality controls will be put in place to ensure that we do not create undesired consequences by amending the KEMSA Act without putting the requisite controls in the counties to ensure that we do not have a situation where we have different quality of services, drugs and equipment in county hospitals. That having been said, one of the things I like about this Bill is that it seeks to give autonomy to our counties to develop their prerequisite capacity to procure especially in the sectors that are devolved such as health. Health services are delivered under Paragraph two of the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution and county governments are mandated to ensure delivery of health services under the county health systems in order to provide services that guarantee the highest attainable standards. Again, quality is very important. I also hope the requisite bulk procurement controls have been put in place, so that if counties procure individually, then it will not cost the taxpayer a lot of money, because we will be talking of smaller quantities as opposed to bulk procurement that the KEMSA does. Having said that, it does not mean that KEMSA is cheaper. As we all know, we have looked at certain KEMSA procurements that sometimes tend to be more expensive. Ideally, bulk procurement of health equipment and services should usually translate to better quality and cheaper cost for the taxpayer. As we amend the provisions that require county governments to make sure that KEMSA is their first point of call, I hope that we ensure that quality and cost controls are also put in place. That way, we will not end up with very expensive and poor quality equipment that is inconsistent with the provisions of Article 43(1) of the Constitution, which says every Kenyan should get the highest standard of services."
}