Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1186051,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1186051/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 296,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cherarkey",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13217,
        "legal_name": "Cherarkey K Samson",
        "slug": "cherarkey-k-samson"
    },
    "content": "We should not pay rent for people to perambulate. That is a heavy English word. How can we be paying rent? It is very expensive. Just like the Senate and the National Assembly, we have official residences. You can imagine if we were renting State House for our President, it is inconveniencing and expensive. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we still have a strange animal which we have been fighting for the past five years. I remember the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration was the Deputy Speaker. It appears that seat is a preserve of Meru and Tharaka Nithi County. He directed that we investigate the issue of Medical Equipment Services (MES) but I am surprised. The Senate had taken a position that the leasing of MES be re-looked at. However, it is still rearing its ugly head. The sad thing is that money for the MES is deducted at the source. So, before money is allocated to the counties, it is deducted at the source. It is not even given to the counties. That is why every county is crying about conditional grants. The money that goes to MES is Kshs110,638,298. There were several reports by the Senate Committee on Health, the Ad Hoc Committee, and Joint Committee on Health and Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights. We discussed this issue and agreed that this is a rip-off. In fact, there are many reports that even the governors and other agencies have declared the leasing of MES an outright rip-off. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is sad that I have to say this. In that report, you will find that gloves were being leased. How can you lease gloves? They were leasing bed sheets and syringes. We need to be serious. I expected the Standing Committee on Finance and Budget of the Senate led by Sen. Roba to write a caveat on this medical equipment supplies. How do you lease a syringe or an apron? We know the companies that were given tenders to supply the medical equipment. Some of them have been blacklisted in the world. There is one from the United States of America (USA), some local companies and many others. This Senate has taken a position that the medical equipment supplies was an outright rip-off. Who are these people who before allocating money to Meru County must deduct it at the National Treasury? Who gives them power? It is not even in the Constitution. These Cartels must be called out. Senators are sitting pretty yet we should be vigilant. In fact, the Senate should push that we immediately stop and cancel the earlier medical leasing agreement. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, you heard Sen. Sifuna talk about the complete blood count (CBC) analyzer machine that is used to test Sickle Cell Disease. When you consider the totals that have been paid over the years, it is a lot. There was a time they were paying billions of shillings. If you give Ksh110 million or Kshs200 million per year for counties to purchase dialysis, cancer or CBC machines, it would have been cheaper than leasing. It is therefore very expensive. The National Government is micro managing health yet under the Fourth Schedule, health is a devolved function. In other words, there is a problem that we really need to address."
}