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{
    "id": 1294441,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1294441/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 245,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sifuna",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13599,
        "legal_name": "Sifuna Edwin Watenya",
        "slug": "sifuna-edwin-watenya"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I have noticed a very worrying pattern with the Bills that have been coming from the legislative drafters in Government offices. This is a matter that we have raised previously when we were debating other Bills that have come before us. The most recent one was the Community Health Promoters that we dealt with while in Turkana. This concern is that every time we see these Bills, they are creating agencies that are going to oversee devolved functions. If you look at the composition of that agency that was created, it is very heavy on national Government appointees. I can see that pattern repeated in this particular Bill. There is an agency created under Clause 5 of this Bill called the Digital Health Agency. If you go to Clause 8 of this Bill, it tells you who the Board of Directors is going to be composed of. They have been enumerated there from Clause 8(a) to (h). I can count that out of the nine people who are supposed to be on this Board, six are appointees of the national Government, to essentially oversee what is a devolved function. What is more worrying is that if you go through other clauses in the Bill, you will notice this pattern being repeated. I honestly cannot sit here as a Senator to allow even an inch of what is devolved to be taken away. I can see that we are slowly by slowly, by some of the legislation that is being introduced here, chipping away the functions of the county governments and planting them in national government agencies. If you look at Clause 7(2)(a) of this Bill, it talks about management and control of the assets of that agency which will oversee devolution. However, there is a proviso to that particular clause that says that if that national agency that is managing a devolved function requires to charge or dispose of any immovable property, it can only be done with prior approval of the National Assembly, not of the Senate. That tells you that that spirit of clawing back slowly at things that should essentially fall under the mandate of the devolved units is continuing. In Clause 15, you will see that in establishing a framework for the administration and management of the health system, the Comprehensive Integrated Health Information System, the agency is only required to consult, not with the governors, Council of Governors (CoG), the Senate or anybody else in devolution. The clause speaks of the agency consulting with the Cabinet Secretary, who is an official of the national Government. There are more problems that I have seen in this particular Bill. Clause 17 sets out the main objectives of the system under this Bill is to make sure that they facilitate data processing and use for informed decision-making at all levels, including for resource allocation and management in the health sector. If, indeed, this is one of the jobs that the agency is supposed to oversee, and if you are using it to determine resource allocation, the people with the resources under devolution are the county governors. If you do not involve them, how are they going to allocate those resources? To demonstrate that point even further, Clause 23 (2) says that-"
}