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{
    "id": 678862,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/678862/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 296,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "need that we should have 47 small units of National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) boards that can be operated by three or four people in that small board per county? Why? It is because we want the health of the people in that county to be guaranteed as follows; since you have several civil servants there and other people who are contributing to this fund, can the base be expanded by having a committee in the counties such that you can now expand your reach? I was going also to sit with Sen. Wangari at the amendment stage because we need to introduce and say since the contribution is normally around kshs1,200 per month which is about Ksh13,000 every year, how much money do we contribute every weekend particularly those of us from North Rift and Western Kenya and other parts, for the sake of bills in hospitals? It is a lot. I was talking with Sen. Martha and she was telling me she has almost four or five harambees to go to. We now have even misrepresented that terminology of harambee of 1963 which was meant to build our nation and not to go and get money to save a life there. It is because of these things that it would have been very easy for the person to save himself if this fund is going to be available to everybody. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we will also need to introduce a compulsory clause. When we have these small boards in the counties, it is therefore, compulsory for every citizen of that county to contribute an amount for them to have a card. That card is as cheap as you can see. If it is Kshs10,000, it is two goats for those of from the pastoral regions and you are okay in a year. If that can be guaranteed, and the businessman here, Sen. M. Kajwang, who is a fish farmer can also go to Lake Victoria and work overnight and the next day he has enough fish to generate the amount he wants to pay. Let us treat it as such. I am saying it is compulsory because when sickness comes, it compels all of us to rescue life. Before that arrives, why do we not be civil enough to say this is compulsory? We now have people called the village administrators and the ward administrators; we can have them in the villages and task them to register people with the NHIF. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, another amendment that is going to be introduced is when a civil servant retires.Unfortunately, Sen. Wangari needs to hear this. This NHIF funds ceases as soon as you retire. Why is it so? At your retirement age of 60 years and above, that is the time you now need medical attention more than when you were young. Why would NHIF in their own wisdom decide to terminate it? We should pay from our pension funds. They should deduct that Kshs1,000 per month from your pension for the time you are there. It is not a choice. It is still compulsory because we want to take care of you. In Singapore, it is compulsory. As soon as you finish school, you aim at five things; one is a car, the other is to become a club member, you have an insurance card, salary card and a house card called condominium. If other nations that had prime time like Kenya have done it – I went to Singapore and when you pass by, you see a hospital which is so clean and you do not see a human being. Then I asked myself what it is and I am told it is a hospital. In Kenya, a hospital without people is not a hospital. Again, we have a huge number of Kenyans who are in the diaspora. Sen. Wangari should think about it here. Can they send their money or do they want to give it while in the diaspora? We can give them a slight increase of how much they want to pay to 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"
}