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"id": 1522094,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Methu",
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"speaker": {
"id": 13581,
"legal_name": "Methu John Muhia",
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"content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. Finally, I have been waiting because I want to make my comment. If you indulge me, Madam Temporary Speaker, I also want to thank you very much for leading us and the team from the Senate for the prayers that we had at Sen. Cheptumo's home. You have a lot of compassion and you led us well. You also led us when we went for his memorial earlier today at the Africa Inland Church (AIC), Milimani. Madam Temporary Speaker, to my understanding, the reason why this particular Statement has been sought by the Minority Whip is because yesterday, we had the Cabinet Secretary for Health. Amongst all the functions that have been devolved to counties, it is my opinion that the most critical of all the functions that have been devolved would be health. Therefore, just as my colleagues are wondering, I am also wondering why would the governors or county establishments take these matters very casually. In the Statement, Sen. Olekina has tried to diagnose the problem. There are two issues that are coming out very clearly, that counties are the end-users, especially of drugs and pharmaceutical products from KEMSA and they bear the blunt and burden, especially when the drugs do not get to the counties. Secondly, there is another critical matter. When drugs expire, and equipment that has been supplied by KEMSA are obsolete, or when they cannot be used by counties, who bears this brunt of paying for these particular services? It is the counties. Who are the counties? These are the people. Consequently, when the Exchequer releases are late, would you want to tell me that drugs can wait until we get the money from the Exchequer? It is not possible. The proposal that has been brought by Sen. Olekina is that let KEMSA be a supermarket. Pharmaceutical companies should bring their pharmaceutical products and if they have been used, then they can be paid. We pay for what we have used and not for what has been delivered. Sen. Wafula has correctly diagnosed this. Sometimes we, actually, pay for empty boxes. Madam Temporary Speaker, when you walk to our hospitals, there are no pharmaceutical products or medicine in hospitals. It is the same problem in every county. In fact, I was challenged by a young man that they went to see a doctor at a Level 3 hospital at a particular health facility and the only thing that was in that particular health facility that looked like medicine or a pharmaceutical product was the free condoms that are offered by the Government. It cannot be that we cannot take seriously the health of the people of Kenya. I have seen that there is a proposal and I do not know whether it has been brought either to this House or the National Assembly. There is a proposal that for public health facilities to be more effective and efficient, why can we not force leaders and civil servants to get services from public health facilities? This makes me think, now that there is no rule that requires or forces civil servants, leaders, politicians and the high and mighty in the society to take their children to public secondary schools, why is it that we 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."
}