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{
    "id": 1559872,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1559872/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 863,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Caroli Omondi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Hon. Speaker, therefore, the categorisation under Section 28 may not be accurate. Somebody could be an orphan, but he is not below the poverty line. You could be an old person, but you are not below the poverty line. You could be a person with disability, but you are not below the poverty line. I think there is some serious work we need to do here to avoid controversies in the future. Secondly, as a House, it would have been better to understand the full cost implication of implementing this Bill and the social programmes contemplated there under. You realise that it talks about Non-contributory Universal Social Protection Programme. We do not know whether this will take Ksh100 billion or Ksh200 billion. As a House, the Leader of the Majority Party should have informed us in the memorandum so that we could debate from a position of knowledge. It is going to apply to everybody. Those who will be excluded can easily go to court and claim discrimination and basically derail the entire system. Therefore, we need to do additional work. In any event, if you are talking about Universal Non-contributory Protection Programme, there are so many forms of social protection that already exist. We have schemes by the Government where we give subsidised food stuffs, waive fees or give free medical care. We have community health workers who offer assistance and service to those in need, bursaries, free education in some components and emergency funds which are not included in this new proposal. I am wondering where all this will sit. I thought we should have a comprehensive Bill that is dealing with social protection in all the spheres where Government funds are being spent. However, if you look at Section 31, we are being told that the board that is being proposed to be established will conduct an assessment to verify whether applicants are eligible for protection. In a country where over 50 per cent are below the poverty line, what kind of The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}