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{
    "id": 1443550,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1443550/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 139,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Maanzo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13589,
        "legal_name": "Maanzo Daniel Kitonga",
        "slug": "maanzo-daniel-kitonga"
    },
    "content": "They gave an organized Gazette notice and, in fact, announced that these regulations were to be effective by 1st July. Of course, the tariffs were never published and there was a little bit of disorganization in the presentation of these regulations and keenly with the tariffs missing, then the regulations had a gaping hole. We pleaded with the Ministry to let us have these tariffs. We have never seen them up to today. Without the tariffs, then you have a very big component of the regulations not accompanying and not being part of the regulations, and they cannot come when the regulations have come to effect. We have always advised Ministries that they should do pre-publication with the Committee. It makes work very easy for them and they are able to do a checklist and make sure that, that checklist is as per the Statutory Instruments Act, the Constitution and any other relevant law. Unfortunately, this never happened and we painfully proposed to annul these regulations for they never met fully public participation, which is a requirement under Article 10 of the Constitution. The Ministry claimed that it did public consultation. One of the major stakeholders of these regulations is the Council of Governors (CoG). Now that health is devolved under the Constitution, if the counties are not properly consulted and they are not even aware of the publication of the regulations, it becomes very difficult. The CoG have come out very strongly against this, in our Committee whenever the regulations are passed without consulting them as a major stakeholder. Unfortunately, this did not happen in this case. We had also the impact assessment. They have to provide an impact assessment and in the event you have to give an exception as provided under Section Nine of the Statutory Instruments Act, then there is a threshold of abstaining or failing to provide. There were so many gaping holes and now that the CS never turned up, the people the CS sent, really tried in vain without giving proper explanations as to why the regulations had so much missing. One of the biggest problems was how they were going to assess the neediness of a family in the Republic of Kenya. We have quite a number of many needy families, which may now qualify to be paid for by the State, but that could not be availed. We waited for the CS to bring it on board and she never did. Therefore, we were left with a very big problem. Additionally, even at the time we were doing this annulment, the Gen Z had not even come up with their own many complaints that they have come up with. The issue of health insurance has been a big debate in the country and, therefore, there was every need to make a very good law and subsequent regulations, so that it does not generate a negative debate. The Senate has done very well and I want to convince all Senators to uphold the position of the Committee. Let the Cabinet Secretary go to the drawing board, do public participation, consider memoranda from experts and stakeholders of the county governments and comply with the law of Statutory Instruments Act. Otherwise, if we were to allow these regulations in the way they had been presented and without the tariffs from the Attorney-General's office, which were also supposed to be gazetted, then we are going to bring more sores into the problems of Kenyans. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}