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{
    "id": 498640,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/498640/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 330,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Ong’era",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13117,
        "legal_name": "Janet Ongera",
        "slug": "janet-ongera"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, thank you for giving me this opportunity to also support this Motion. From the outset, let me congratulate Sen. Ndiema for bringing up this important Motion that is discussing the state of health services in our counties. As you are aware, since September 2013, many doctors have resigned from public hospitals in Kenya. The highest number of these doctors who resigned was in Embu County where over 16 doctors resigned. This is unacceptable. We, as the Senate, must interrogate these issues and come up with a solution. The reasons why many of these medical practitioners are resigning is because of the many problems which are really genuine. Amongst these problems, I want to highlight three of which I think are very critical in this country. Madam Temporary Speaker, one of them is that they have inadequate funds to pay the doctors or the medical practitioners. As you know, we have been trying severally in this Senate to raise the budget for medical facilities in the counties but this keeps on being shot down at the National Assembly. It is high time that we amended the relevant provisions of the law including the Constitution so that the Senate can actually deal with the allocation of revenues directly and the matter is finalized here in the Senate. We cannot have a situation where doctors do not have guaranteed security of tenure. We cannot have a situation where doctors are not guaranteed that at the end of the month they know whether they will get their salaries or not. We cannot have a situation where we know that health services are actually one of the most important essential services in this country but we are holding doctors at ransom; these are the people who provide services or and a key instrument in the provision of those services. The manner in which we are treating our medical practitioners is unacceptable. We are not respecting them despite the fact that they offer a very important service. Madam Temporary Speaker, when I look at the national budget, it grieves me to note that security is given the highest amount of money and yet the state of insecurity in this country leaves a lot to be desired. Yet health, which is also an essential service, the money is not being devolved down to the counties. It is high time that we reduced the number of personnel at the Ministry of Health Services here at the national level. What work are these people doing other than just sitting in their offices and calling it a day? The real work – as you know because of devolution – lies in the counties and that is where the money needs to be devolved to. We need to bring an amendment to the Medical Health Act to ensure that we leave just skeleton personnel at the national 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."
}