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"content": "do not leave it to the discretion of governors who have seriously eroded the discretion that we gave them in managing some of these matters by doing things that are not right. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Clause 12 (b) states: - “Such persons to be appointed for three years renewable”. For continuity, I have always said, and this is something I have debated with my brother, Sen. Wako, when he was the Attorney-General, that when you want continuity, you must have a law that provides for staggering of appointments, so that when you are appointing 10 people, the first five, should serve a term different from the second five. So that when the first five bow out, you have the other five to carry out continuity and memory of what the board does. What happens is, you have a board of 10, starting at the same time and ending at the same time. When the time ends, they all leave. You bring in a new team and that is why we have this manner of Kenyans, every time a new board is appointed, they are going to benchmark in Australia, they are going to benchmark in Israel and everywhere. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, you find a board doing farming in well watered areas like Nyandarua, Kakamega or Kericho going to benchmark on agriculture in a country that does not receive any rains. What do you go to benchmark about farming in Israel, when you are from Nyandarua or Kirinyaga? If there was a delegation from Garissa, Wajir or Mandera to go and look at dry farming, you can understand. When you have five or half of the board left, the incoming five will learn from those who are there. County governments must learn to benchmark from relevant sources. They have invented all manner of words that aggregate in spending public funds; funds that are so much needed in helping sick people. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, something that we take for granted is the lack of specifically mentioning that the gender rule must be observed. This should not be left out to the good sense of the appointing authority because, at times, it is not forthcoming. Therefore, in every law, we must be very clear that we must balance the gender parity that we want the country to achieve. We want to get to where Rwanda and some Scandinavian countries have reached. We should not tire in repeating over and over that in public appointments, we must have gender balance. If we do not do this, we shall witness what we recently saw in the appointments by State House where women got a totally raw deal. If you read through that list of appointees, you will see that, mostly, it consisted of men, failed politicians and others with all manner of characters. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as I said, health is very critical. I urge the Senate Committee on Health, more than any other Committee, to work. People can live with bad roads and dilapidated infrastructure but they cannot live without the provision of adequate health facilities. When you go to the countryside, some of our governors are busy churning out bogus statistics on how well they are doing. The distinguished Senator for Kitui County talked of a governor erecting gates at the hospital in his county, yet there is nothing functioning. The hospital has a beautiful gate and a board reading that it is a referral hospital. There is nothing to refer to because there are no doctors, health technicians or equipment. If governors spend 30 per cent of their money on health, we will forgive them for having bad roads. We will also forgive them for not planting enough trees although the environment is critical. Peoples’ health is of importance; a healthy nation is a working and a happy nation. I visited the district hospital in my county, Bungoma. It is called County Referral Hospital. What I saw there was shocking; dead bodies lying side by side for two or three days, flies moving from corpses and landing on food that has been given to a patient who was admitted there. 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."
}