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    "id": 588482,
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    "content": "extent that money that comes into the country to help the sick ends up helping those who are not sick, who pocket the money and do all manner of things. Mr. Temporary Speaker Sir, this is a Bill that I have no doubt is popular and every Member and head of delegation, including the distinguished colleagues from Laikipia, Nakuru and Garissa counties sitting in front of me, would want to see that funds and functions are equitably distributed and managed so that people can benefit. You will notice that in the last five or so years, the campaign and advocacy for HIV/AIDS has gone down. People are now focusing on different things and one can understand that the enthusiasm for advocacy was because it was a gravy train. Now that the money has dried up, those beneficiaries start looking for areas where they can make quick money and HIV/AIDS is no longer one such area. This is because the national Government has not been putting sufficient funds in the management of HIV/AIDS. If you want to know that HIV/AIDS remains a pandemic alongside serious killers like malaria, vector borne diseases and so on, visit any ward in the rural areas or the outlying areas outside Nairobi. You will find a ward full of tuberculosis (TB) patients which is an opportunistic infection after HIV/AIDS. You will find people suffering from severe diarrhea which again is an opportunistic infection after HIV/AIDS. Many people are dying out there. Mr. Temporary Speaker Sir, as we laud this, we must also be extremely cautious because governors have gone rogue. As we want to devolve this function and we must because like one distinguished person said, we do not have governors who are thieves, but we have thieves who have found their way into the offices of governors and they are doing havoc. The Office of the Governor as constitutionally designed is a distinguished office. It is an office of honour; an office of service, but when you see a governor buying a wheelbarrow that costs Kshs3, 000 for Kshs109, 000, then you know that this is a thief that has found his way in the office of the governor and not a governor. This is replicated all over. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, these obscenities are repeated everywhere you go. You remember cases of governors carrying toilets to public meetings, governors carrying chairs to funerals to go and sit on, and all manner of outrageous obscenity. As we devolve this, the Mover of this Bill must be ready to make things tight, to make sure that the Committees that we want to set up are Committees that are going to be represented by people of integrity, to make sure that governors are not going to appoint their cronies and unqualified people who will be put there just to earn money. I want to invite the sponsor of the Bill to go to Clause 5, on page 46. Clause 5 establishes County AIDS Control Committees. I want Sen. (Dr.) Machage to pay attention to the following and try to bring changes at the Committee Stage. This is about the composition. 1. Clause 5 (2) (a) states:- “One person with knowledge and experience in matters relating to HIV/AIDS prevention and control appointed by the county governor shall be the chairman”. Such a weak provision will allow the governor to appoint anybody. Anybody can draft curriculum vitae and say he has experience and knowledge in matters relating to AIDS even without the requisite knowledge, professionalism and qualifications. I want the sponsor of the Bill to tighten this by specifically saying that the person who will chair this Committee must be a medical doctor with sufficient experience in matters relating to HIV/AIDS, who shall be appointed by the governor but with the approval of the county assembly, so that we do not leave 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."
}