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{
    "id": 1229189,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1229189/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 294,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Kamar",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 33,
        "legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
        "slug": "margaret-kamar"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, agriculture and heath functions are devolved. I am happy with this Bill because with the coming in of the Oversight Fund for Senators, we should have our committees going to the ground to question why some things are not happening. We need to know why we are not able to attain the highest level of health services and give adequate amount of balanced food to our people. Some of this could just be because of facilitation by the Government. When we talk about reasonable standards of sanitation, there are people who do not even understand the meaning of the word “sanitation”. We have donors in this country who do not understand what we mean by “sanitation,” yet we have released funding to our counties. They are supposed to do that because those functions are devolved. I am happy to support this Bill because I know it is going to change even the right to education. All these things are intertwined. If we do not give a balanced diet to our children in some parts of this country and do not have enough resources to send them to school, at the end of the year, the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) are not sensitive to that. The same examination is done on one day by people who are well endowed and those who are not. It is also done by people who have access to good healthcare facilities and those who do not. That causes an imbalance. When we talk about the right to education, it becomes imbalanced as you go higher. That is why access to higher education for some regions of this country is still a challenge because basic needs and socio-economic rights have not been implemented. As we finalise this Bill, and it should happen as soon as possible, it is my prayer that we will go ahead to implement it. This should be the first agenda for our Oversight Fund. If we fulfil this, I dare say, we would have fulfilled the highest number of rights for this country and will be at peace. This is because somebody who has food security is healthy, has water, and they are secure, is a peaceful person. This will generate peace for the nation. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in Clause 5, the Bill talks about obligations of the national Government and county governments with respect to economic and social rights. This is what we are going to oversight, to ensure that our county governments implement what has been articulated in this Bill. It is important that we push them and ensure that they do it. Looking at the roles of the national Government and county governments, they are doable. I thank Sen. Mungatana for that. These are not difficult things to do. The problem is the goodwill. We must push for that goodwill because you can never force somebody to have goodwill. We have parliaments which must ensure that we do enough oversight, to ensure that whatever has been passed is done. We must create awareness among the people and let citizens know their rights. Once citizens know their rights, it will make our oversight work easy. That is why I believe in oversight funding, so that we can go out and talk to the citizens and let them know what their rights are as far as health and access to clean water are concerned."
}