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{
    "id": 1545591,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545591/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 146,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "There is a fund for primary healthcare and there is a fund for emergency healthcare. These two funds in the construction of the Act, you do not see how they are being fed and where they are getting their money. It is designed that the money will come from the Consolidated Fund. Now when you look at Article 206 of the Constitution, you will find that all money raised by the Government is supposed to be deposited in the Consolidated Fund, except where Parliament excludes that money to go into special funds. I would like the committee to look into that issue and tell this House when that Act was made by Parliament, whether we created a fund that is not being resourced. The SHIF, as we are debating and fighting it and whatever it is designed, will be funded from premiums that people will pay. That is okay for setting up a fund in terms of the law, but the two other funds do not have a provision. So where will that money come from? It cannot come from the Consolidated Fund. Article 2(6) is an absolute bar. It says where Parliament sets up a fund, it must also set up a mechanism to exclude the monies from going into the Consolidated Fund. It does not say that Parliament will set up a fund to draw money from the Consolidated Fund. Under the Social Health Authority (SHA) arrangement, we have two funds designed to get money from the Consolidated Fund. What informs that kind of disregard for the Constitution? If you go further and look at the Public Finance Management Act and the Public Finance Management Regulations, you will find that they underscored the word “that”. If a fund is set up, it must be resourced by the Legislature. Parliament must say where the money will come from. So, as the Committee looks at this particular issue of SHA, which is the umbrella of the Social Health Act that also creates it under which the Social Health Insurance Fund is created as one of the three funds. In this particular case, I would like the Committee to focus on these two other funds that are lying there, hidden in the law, and that are designed to get money from the Consolidated Fund. I do not know how that will be done. I hope it will not be considered that they are those that are anticipated under Article 223 of the Constitution where we have in the event of unforeseen circumstances, a supplementary budget can be made to provide. I hope those two funds are not placed there as unforeseen circumstances that will be used to draw money from the Consolidated Fund. The question of transport in the statement by Prof. Ojienda, in Port Victoria, sorry, the Kisumu Port. I am sorry to have used the words Port Victoria. You know Busia has a lake. Port Victoria was in Busia, not in Kisumu. I am a bit confused there, but he raises an important point in terms of the Kenyan economy as a transit economy. Our economy is largely a transit economy. If you look at what we call the economy of Kenya today, it is where the Uganda Railway passed. The railway passed from Mombasa going to Uganda. So, that corridor is very important. When you look at the traffic on our roads, the most common vehicle is the trailer; either carrying goods into the hinterland or empty containers from the hinterland back to the coast. 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."
}