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{
    "id": 528297,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/528297/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 340,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "November 5, 2014 SENATE DEBATES 41 Sen. Omondi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for allowing me to contribute to this Motion. First, we must agree that when we are starting something, we must have teething problems. But we should not allow the teething problems to be a problem that will make us to fail to achieve what we wanted to achieve. Madam Temporary Speaker, the starting point is all about devolving functions and the funds. We do not see the reason why most functions should be devolved to the county governments, as per the Constitutional requirements, but the financial support is not devolved fully. This is becoming a problem. There are three functions that we, as a country and we, as legislators, must take seriously. These are the areas of education, health and the security of our people. Madam Temporary Speaker, we have Kenyans and their families who cannot afford to access health services like the other Kenyans. These Kenyans rely on us, as legislators, to come up with policies that are going to make them access health facilities or health services. At t he moment, Kenyans are suffering; they cannot access health services simply because the function was devolved, but there is no harmony where the county governments and the people who are offering these services are coming together to learn and understand how best they can deliver services to Kenyans. Madam Temporary Speaker, when I visited one of the health centres in my constituency, it was pathetic. Yes, the Government is giving free maternity healthcare to mothers who are delivering, but the environment where these mothers are giving birth is wanting. The environment where this service is given is so pathetic; the way the beddings, the food and the medicine are, I think it is not free the way it is said to be. Because of the lack of motivation, insufficient staffing and the lack of security to service providers, the medical service practitioners have relaxed. You will find that the casual workers are now billing for the medicine; they are serving medicine without proper prescriptions of this medicine and in a way, it shows how the people of Kenyan have been neglected when it comes to health services. It is really important for us to take health seriously. We should support it in terms of financing the health services, putting in place structures and making sure that the people who handle the patients are qualified. You will find a hospital which is supposed to run for 24 hours closing at 6.00 p.m. So, the patients who are coming in after 6.00 p.m. have to sleep in the hospital without being attended to. These patients would have been better staying at their houses. This shows that the health service providers have lost hope because of lack of motivation, lack of promotion and the way they are being mishandled when it comes to looking unto them as people who offer the service that is very critical to Kenyans. This makes them not to care whether they have left behind patients or whether these patients need their attention. It is not their business. The same way the education sector is having its ups and downs is the same way the health service sector is also questionable. Security is also wanting and we must come out strongly because if these three functions fail to pick up, then others will not reach where they are supposed to reach. At the end of the day, we will have a sick country where Kenyans are sick; a country where the security of the people is not guaranteed, then we are not going to achieve economically as a country. 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"
}