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{
    "id": 1565797,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1565797/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 212,
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    "content": "medical workers are outside our House here. They were here in Parliament. Sadly, they were tear-gassed by the police. I do not know why, because they have been there every single day for the past three or so months. Today they are here too. We have been told by the leadership of these unions that these CBAs are binding to county governments. I want to plead with the UHC workers, that where we have reached now, the only thing we want to discuss is money. The time for stories is over and the House that handles money is the National Assembly. Let them be protesting there, because we, as a Senate, have done our part. The Chair of the Committee on Finance and Budget must allocate the money that is required to absorb these UHC workers under permanent and pensionable terms. When I was in Garissa, I ran into the Cabinet Secretary for Health. He was also trying to be clever by drawing in the Senate yet we as a Senate have done our job. The Cabinet Secretary Hon. Duale knows very well that the Senate does not appropriate any money. He wants it to look like we are the problem yet the problem and the people with the power of the purse is the National Assembly. Thirdly, there is the question of the MOU, that we signed between ODM and UDA parties. I said I will come back to the Cabinet Secretary Hon. Mbadi, because it has been said out there that I only criticise, but I do not say anything positive about our experts in the Government. The truth of the matter is if you do something that is contrary to what the ODM stands for, it is my responsibility to say that that is against what ODM stands for. When the Cabinet Secretary, Hon. Mbadi, says that in this particular Financial Year, there will be no new taxes he introduces under the Finance Act, that is ODM, that is who we are. We say ‘tick.’ I saw in today's newspaper that he has issued a circular that is going to introduce transparency in the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) process. He has adopted wholesale the recommendations of the Committee of this House on Roads, Transportation and Housing, which was dealing with the Adani question. When we say that, number one, if you are a Government agency that receives a privately initiated proposal on any development, you have a responsibility to disclose that you have received that document. He has adopted that, and as the Secretary General (SG), I say that is ODM. We are for transparency, ‘tick.’ We have said in the Committee where I used to sit when Karungo Thang’wa was the Chair and I was a Member, that after you receive a privately initiated proposal for a PPP, you have to allow other people to give you a better offer. What we called in the Committee the Swiss challenge. I have seen he has put it in the circular. I say that is ODM. We say ‘tick.’ Consequently, on this one here, where he is proposing Kshs405 billion, it is my responsibility to say to the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury, that is not what ODM has agreed with UDA. We agreed in the MOU and I carry this MOU everywhere I go because I encounter ignorance at all levels. It is my responsibility to make sure that I deal with the ignorance about what this MOU provides for."
}