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{
    "id": 1186155,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1186155/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 400,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Ali Roba",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Secondly, modalities of utilization of conditional and unconditional grants or this additional allocation, which comes with sets of conditions from the development partners as well as the Government of Kenya, does not conform to the modalities of utilization of Equalization Fund, or its flow as required. Number three, is extremely critical. We noticed during interrogation and engagement with various stakeholders that the administrative cost of three per cent that would have given effect to the utilization of the Equalization Fund has not been factored in the provisions of this Bill. As such, we have engaged our legal experts, the Council of Governors (CoG), the CRA and the National Treasury who have all concurred that it is not appropriately placed if bundled with conditional grant. Therefore, we will adapt proposals by hon. Senators as they contributed during debate on this Bill as well as from various stakeholders as required. The issue of medical equipment has come up. We, as a Committee, have extensively engaged the CoG who are the end users of medical equipment in the hospitals. I am a former governor and I know there are some technical hitches. However, there is greater good in utilization of this medical equipment by our county governments in terms of service provision. Notably, during my time in office as Governor, Computed Tomography (CT) scans and dialysis machines really touched me. People from my county used to travel over 1,200 kilometres to Nairobi for dialysis. Now they are able to enjoy the same services at county level. Maybe without the helping hand from national Government in terms of catalyzing the process of improving quality of health services in county government and in view of the natural growth of county governments, we would have taken longer. I believe that the agreement and contract between the providers of these leased equipment and the Government is a bit opaque. To the extent, by the time I left office, we did not know explicitly the content of the agreement between the Government of Kenya and the equipment service providers that we engaged with. We had taken up that issue with the National Treasury and CoG. They requested that we process the provision as provided. So far, 26 counties have expressed willingness to extend the contract, but on new terms that is clear. As such, we have also consulted the National Treasury and the same has been shared. When we are ready to submit the report, the various justification in relation to those issues will be shared. My colleagues have shared the issue of constructing county headquarters. It is extremely sad. As a Governor who has served 10 full years, I stand here with the benefit of institutionalising and operationalising devolution and having been part of this."
}