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{
    "id": 437117,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/437117/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 351,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Lonyangapuo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 447,
        "legal_name": "John Krop Lonyangapuo",
        "slug": "john-lonyangapuo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, you know that we represent counties, and that there exists a committee of 11 people who were supposed to interrogate this Bill on behalf of the others. Problems in our counties are completely varied; they depend on--- The Senator is supposed to be coming to tabulate and table the concerns that need to be addressed. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when I look at what has been presented here, I concur with my colleagues that the 11 level five hospitals – that are scattered all over the country – need to be funded separately. We also need to see how the additional 36 level 5 hospitals can be funded every year. I remember when we were doing the Othaya level 5 hospital, the cost was around Kshs1.2 billion. I think it is almost getting completed. If, for example, every year we be dedicated to constructing five or 10 level 5 hospitals in some counties, we will sort out the congestion that some of these level 5 hospitals, and the only two referral hospitals we have, are facing at the moment. Those of us in the north rift have a hospital called “Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital” that is constantly under threat because people from western Kenya, Nyanza, north rift and even Nakuru all come to Eldoret for treatment. If we have more of these hospitals, we will decongest these level 5 hospitals. It does not cost much to construct them. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I see what the National Assembly did when they were trying to assign themselves funds here; they said the national allocation is Kshs799.65 billion, and they isolated an item called “economic stimulus package;” they are claiming that it is supposed to complete ongoing projects under the stimulus packages in the 290 constituencies. I want this to be noted, that prior to this Constitution coming into place, there were only 210 constituencies, for which some stimulus projects were funded and not 290 constituencies. They need to rephrase this statement, because this is a way of getting money for Members of Parliament (MPs) to move around and pretend that they can have money in their constituencies. There are 80 constituencies that we did not have; why are they saying that they want to complete project in them? What do they want to complete when they did not exist? You can see that there is mischief here; Members of the National Assembly want to assign themselves funds at the expense of the counties. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I want to speak about the Equalization Fund, which is put here like some decoration. There were 14 counties that were supposed to benefit last year; my county of West Pokot was supposed to benefit with Kshs245 million in the 2013/2014 Financial Year. This was to help deal with four main problems, electricity, water, roads and so on. You heard some people say they are so busy renovating and repairing some old tarmac roads, but we have no tarmac road to talk about. If this little The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}