Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 607173,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/607173/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 262,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": ". So, there is something very unique and peculiar about health. It is the fact that every one of us can get services in different places. I had a very candid conversation with the county government, that is, the governor and the county executive, a few weeks ago and one thing that came out very clearly is that if a certain county decides to spend a lot of money on health and word goes round, residents of other counties will cross over to this facility to be treated. Therefore, they will consume all that medicine, being the stock bought from money allocated, to another county. For example, if you go to Iten, people are now leaving Eldoret to go to Iten because there are better bed facilities, better medicine and so on. Therefore, we must protect the health sector in devolution. That is why we were saying, the current formula is not reflective of the challenges of the people. We want to safeguard certain sectors like health. We should also do a proper analysis of the amount of money we reasonably need to achieve certain targets in health and then allocate the resources. We should then safeguard these resources and lock them out of equal sharing of the other money. It is important for us, as a Senate, to streamline the health sector. There was a time the Senate Majority Leader came here with Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) Bill. It is time again we sat as a Senate to discuss the position of KEMSA as an intergovernmental body, because at the moment, it is a national Government entity but it serves both national and county governments. How do we ensure that there is fairness in terms of resources, access to and in the distribution of medicine? What kind of relationship does KEMSA have with counties? It must be very clear in law, and I think the Committee on Health has a responsibility to ensure that we achieve that. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, about the question of transfer of functions, I thank the Committee on Finance, Commerce and Budget for capturing very clearly the question of functions overlap. There is a lot of overlap; there are certain things that are still being performed by the national Government which even when you see with your own eyes, they are county functions. As demonstrated in this Report, there are certain budgetary 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."
}