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{
    "id": 444221,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/444221/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 358,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Limo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1915,
        "legal_name": "Joseph Kirui Limo",
        "slug": "joseph-kirui-limo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker. I rise to contribute to this important Motion on devolution of health services. Before I say anything about this, I would like to appreciate the fact that the Constitution that we passed in 2010 wanted, in good faith, to share the functions between the national Government and the county governments. That is why under the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution health services were devolved to the grassroots. If you allow me to read, the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution 2010 states thus: “County health services, including in particular - (a) county health facilities and pharmacies; (b) ambulance services; (c) promotion of primary health care; (d) licensing and control of undertakings that sell food to the public; (e) veterinary services (excluding regulation of the profession); (f) cemeteries, funeral parlours and crematoria; and (g) refuse removal, refuse dumps and solid waste disposal.” I want to say that (a), (b), and (c) which touch on county health facilities and pharmacies, ambulance services and promotion of health care respectively are the ones with a lot of trouble at the county level. It is partly because of the failure by the two agencies which the Government relies on in terms of ensuring that devolution is implemented successful and that is the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) and the Transition Authority (TA) which have actually failed this country because of this. County health has been transferred to the counties without the costing which has been awaited for a long time. The CRA is currently allocating revenues to the various counties using among other things population, land, poverty index etcetera without considering the real cost of the transfered functions. It is required that all functions must be transferred including the resources to support those function. Failure to do this is a real problem especially for counties which had big structures, for example, Kiambu, Nyeri, Kericho and Kakamega. These are counties which have a lot of facilities in the health sector. Of particular concern is Kericho County. This county receives about Kshs4 billion out of which Kshs1 billion is used on Recurrent Expenditure in the health sector. This money is not enough to run those facilities in the health sector even if we claim that they have devolved this particular function. We all agreed that the Constitution 2010 had a lot of issues which ought to have been sorted. The people who were supporting this Constitution, with all due respect, said that we pass this Constitution and then we correct the issues as we go along. I am sure that the governors who are listening to this debate will agree with me that the health sector was not well prepared for devolution. This is because currently there are a lot of problems. The people in our constituencies do not appreciate that the health sector is not under Members of Parliament. I receive so many 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."
}