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{
    "id": 428452,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/428452/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 228,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Pukose",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1458,
        "legal_name": "Robert Pukose",
        "slug": "robert-pukose"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker. In this Budget Polity Statement, we are looking at some allocations of resources to what we used to formally call provincial general hospitals. We are also looking at conditional grants and money to the constituencies for the construction of polytechnics. I am hoping that when that money rolls down to the various counties, our governors will be able to say: This is the money that we got from the national Government. It is not their money. It is money that the national Government has allocated to all the counties. I hope they will be able to sit with MPs, women Members of Parliament and other members within the county development forum, so that they are able to discuss, set out priorities and have that money invested in a proper way. Last year, we gave conditional grants to all the former provincial general hospitals; unfortunately, the information we have is that the provincial hospitals are being asked to give what we call fee notes to the offices of the governors. Once they give those fee notes, then the offices of governors pay bills. That is not the way to go. The way to go because this is money which is clearly spelt out and it is money for development of those institutions, is to know how much money they have received. Then they will be able to sit down and plan in a proper way. The debate about the wage bill, to me, is healthy. In fact, it should be taken to the next level. Many people will try and defend their positions. We have seen hon. Mwaura and hon. Grace Kiptui trying to defend their positions. But I think they need to look at that. There is supposed to be a service to the rest of Kenyans. How do we control the wage bill? We know that the Jubilee Government, for the last one year, has been struggling to put up structures. We talk about food on the table. To have food on the table, you need to have structures in place. The Galana project is starting and we hope that very soon we will have enough food for our people. I would like that when we start this debate about how to spend money within our counties, we should ask ourselves: “Who do we remove and who do we retrench?” I hope that the Leader of Majority Party and other leaders are going to look at people like sub-county administrators. Why do we need a sub-county administrator when we have what we formerly called the DCs? Why do we need a ward administrator when we have the chiefs? Why should we have all those in place? Why do we need a chief officer who has similar qualifications as the executive officer at the county level? Are we creating positions just to provide employment for the people? Where are we going as a country? We must rationalize all the positions even as we discuss--- Hon. Speaker, I think my time was eaten into when there was some bit of conversation. When we talk about the issue of women representatives, they represent a certain section and they are constitutionally where they are today. So, let us look at all the issues in a rational way so that, at the end of the day, we put our country before anything else. 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."
}