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"id": 622625,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Tuya",
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"legal_name": "Roselinda Soipan Tuya",
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"content": "energy. We have had to engage experts to establish the justification as to why the country is moving the opposite direction from what Parliament is proposing. We are waiting for a report from the CS which we shall bring back to the House for necessary direction. This is because we are pulling in a different direction from the Executive. On the resolution on the reduction of National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) penalties, surcharges to defaulters from 500 per cent to 25 per cent by Hon. Gitari, we have a report to the effect that, as we stand right now administratively, those surcharges have been reduced to 25 per cent as per the House resolution. There is need to legalize that through an Act of Parliament. There is need to amend the NHIF Act to accommodate that reduction and the Ministry of Health is actually working on it. On the expansion of cash transfer system to include NHIF cover to all elderly persons by Hon. Mustafa Iddi, this is a situation where the health function is fully devolved. We went ahead to see to what extent this particular resolution has been effected on the ground. That is because Kshs.290.6 million was approved for disbursement to NHIF, to cover those particular payments. When we visited counties, some of them had no idea about that particular provision. The Ministry of Health is actually willing to engage, despite this being a fully devolved function, for us to establish why monies were released and up-to date, no payments have been done to the elderly on NHIF. On the Government upgrading of, at least, one hospital in every county, this is, again, by Hon. Gitari. On this, we have made milestones together with the Ministry of Health and, as we stand right now, despite the health function being devolved, the national Government, in conjunction with the counties, has identified two hospitals in each county. We have made visits to various counties where this is actually happening and, under the Managed Equipment System Programme, we know of some counties where that has already started. We will elaborate more in our report to the House for debate. On the resolution on recruitment and deployment of medical staff by Hon. Ochieng, this is, again, a devolved function. We went ahead to engage with the Ministry and Kshs.3.7 billion was allocated for that particular function. The challenge we established in our visits to counties is that there is no follow-up to ensure that money earmarked for specific functions is actually used for those functions in the counties. This is again a challenge with devolution because in some counties, the governors told us that it was none of our business to check on it. It is a function of the Senate. We are following up on that. On the development of a policy on the boda boda operators by Hon. Ochieng, we have engaged the Ministry, but their response is not satisfactory. We are due to meet with the CS, Transport and Infrastructure to establish how that particular policy is being decentralized and operationalised at the county levels. On the measures by the Government to liberalize air fares, including the awarding of licences to operators by Hon. Mwinyi, we have engaged the CS for Transport and Infrastructure on that. We have established that, actually, 96 airlines have been awarded licences to operate, despite the seeming monopoly by Kenya Airways. We are yet to meet with a number of stakeholders to establish why Kenya Airways maintains the monopoly, despite the fact that we have 96 other players in the market, who are free to operate in the air transport market. On the liberalization of power distribution in the country by Hon. Bowen, the Energy Act does not have Kenya Power as the only power generator and distributor in the country. It gives room to other players and we have established that. We are yet to meet with the Kenya The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}