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"content": "health sector? I think she referred to the issues of the health sector. If it is an issue within the health sector, obviously, they would fall under the relevant docket, which is the Ministry of Health. We, in the Ministry of Public Service and Human Capital Development, may not be appropriately suited to speak authoritatively about them. How we respond to each case of those kinds of challenges would depend on its peculiar circumstances, so our reaction cannot be generalized. The question raised by the Hon. Senator for Kirinyaga County, Sen. (Dr.) Murango, on skeleton staff. Again, I want to appreciate and agree with him that yes, indeed, because of the slow uptake by the Ministries, departments and agencies, sometimes we have not found it easy to deploy many staffers. That is why we have resorted now to training the people we are calling universal staffers, so that one person can give services in various areas. Raise issues about education, Higher Education Loans Board, matters about the driving license, matters with birth certificate. That is why we are training to have these universal staffers, so that we also cannot say that we want to have one center and employ a thousand people. This is going to be tied to the question raised by my good friend, the Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Cheruiyot. The issue of how many staffers we are going to have. I jumped the issue raised by Sen. Cheruiyot because I thought he had gone out, but now he is back. Just to announce before this House and to the country, the approximate number of people in the public service, which is not a constant number, is around 900,000. The number keeps going down, going up, depending on various factors like natural attrition, retirement, sackings and other issues. From time to time, the advice is on stopping further recruitment. So, the number is not constant. It is just around there, around the figure of 900,000, and that includes people in mainstream Public Service, both at the national level and at the county level, the National Police Service, the Teacher Service Commission and those categories. My good friend, Senator for Machakos, the Hon. Kavindu Muthama, yes, the issue of people traveling long distances is a reality. Indeed, I realized that was the main concern of the Hon. Sen. Mungatana. It is true. This is a matter that we must address. Just last weekend on Saturday, I had a meeting with the Member of Yatta Constituency, the Hon Basil Ngui, who indicated to me that he wants to launch the construction of a Huduma Centre in Matuu. As I had indicated, we are liaising with the MPs in the 290 constituencies. We cannot force them, but a discussion had been held long before I came into the Ministry and several Members agreed that there was a need to partner with Huduma Kenya. Initially, there was an agreed budget of about Kshs23 million for putting up of ordinary structures. Unfortunately, when you put ordinary structures, Huduma Kenya will only come and help you with subdivisions here and there. It is not really an ideal situation. When the drawings were taken to the Ministry of Public Works, they came up with different Bill of Quantities (BQs), raising the total cost to around Ksh84 and Kshs89 million per centre. I know the Majority Leader would recall this. 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."
}