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{
    "id": 722792,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/722792/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 169,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kemei",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2778,
        "legal_name": "Justice Kipsang Kemei",
        "slug": "justice-kipsang-kemei"
    },
    "content": "At the end of it all, when the regulations to this law are done, I hope they will provide the meat, ligament and other necessary details that we, probably, cannot put in the body of the Bill that is before us at the moment. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I support the sentiments by my colleagues that clinical officers must be licensed to operate clinics, hospitals, health centres and even training institutions in our country. If we have to expand the health sector, we cannot confine training to the Government alone. We cannot confine training to doctors or physicians, but we need to expand training to cover institutions that are run by clinical officers. This country has witnessed a strike that we have never seen before in the health sector. We are now going to the third month. During the period when doctors have been on strike, the bulk of the medical services in our country have been provided by clinical officers. So, we want, at this stage, to commend them highly because they have managed to correct the mess that we have found ourselves in because of the strike. Clinical officers have done some good work. We hope the Government and the doctors will reach an agreement as early as possible, so that the problems that we are witnessing in the health sector can be resolved once and for all. Health is a fully devolved function, probably, to the level of 90 per cent or 95 per cent. We passed that in the Constitution. Kenyans, in their wisdom, saw the need for the health function to be devolved. We must also look at the problems that we have encountered since we devolved the health sector in our country. I raised this issue when I was new in Parliament. Were we too fast to devolve the health sector? Were we too fast to devolve water as a function? Were we too fast to devolve agriculture? Those are critical sectors in our country and we must ask ourselves whether it was right to devolve them, even if we cannot bring them back to the national Government. We must have a way in which the national Government provides the necessary intervention for agriculture, health and water services to be provided optimally. How I wish that Kenyans, at an opportune time, have sufficient time to reflect on the provisions of the Constitution and determine whether we really still need to devolve the health function 100 per cent! Take, for example, the human resource element of devolution in health. Should we retain health at the national level so that there is harmony and so that people get promotions? People will move freely from one county hospital to another. Those are issues that we need to look at. In conclusion, I wish the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Health was here. We have equipment that was sent to various counties by the national Government. In Kericho County, where I come from, we have the equipment at the Kericho County Hospital and the Sigowet Sub-County Hospital. Last week, information reached us that somebody wanted to move the equipment from Sigowet Sub-County Hospital. Such a move will be resisted by my constituents. Once the equipment has been taken there, let it be installed there and start operating as the Government intended. 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."
}