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{
    "id": 448448,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/448448/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 249,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Mulu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1955,
        "legal_name": "Benson Makali Mulu",
        "slug": "benson-makali-mulu"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker. I rise to support this Report. I want to start by thanking the Committee for taking time to deliberate on this important national matter. We all know that health is quite important to a nation because it determines labour productivity. We all know that when we are sick we cannot work. The whole of this nation is being put into jeopardy by the devolution of health services. It is important that this Report is discussed by the House. I am a Member of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. During the public hearings on the Budget, this issue of funding Level 5 hospitals came up. The explanation we got is that, if nothing is done to this area, the health sector in this country is likely to collapse. I rise to support this Report because when you look at the Constitution, the whole issue of devolution had actually been staggered. We were supposed to take about three years to have some of these functions devolved to the county governments, but there was a bit of haste in devolving the services. For example, if you look at health, I strongly believe that devolution of the health function was not properly done. Why I am saying so basically is because the expectation was before the function was devolved, we should have done capacity assessment to see whether the county governments have the capacity to effectively carry out this function. When you look at what is happening in the counties, it is obvious that 70 per cent of the counties do not have these capacities. That is why you find the service suffering seriously in most of the counties. On the recommendation of this Report that we need to revert back the functions to the national Government, I suggest that we do not do that. We need to get a team of experts to undertake capacity assessment in all the counties in terms of this function. Where we find that the counties have no capacity then such counties should be asked to allow the national Government to take over the function. As the Constitution stipulates, it is expected that whichever county will not be able to take this function, then the function should come back to the national Government and that coming back should be accompanied by resources. That is what the Constitution says. 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."
}