Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 725288,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/725288/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 175,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Kibunguchy",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 294,
        "legal_name": "Enoch Wamalwa Kibunguchy",
        "slug": "enoch-kibunguchy"
    },
    "content": "to look at all those things and obviously, you cannot have a profession that is not regulated. That is what this Bill is trying to do. I just want to add two things. The institution that trains most clinical officers in this country is the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC). At the moment, the KMTC has expanded fairly well and I commend the Board that runs it. However, as a Government and as a country, I think we are not funding KMTC adequately. That is an area that we really need to look into so that KMTC can expand to every corner of this country. Now that we know that 70 to 80 per cent of health is devolved and we have a terrible trend in this country where there is a bit of discrimination when it comes to employing medical workers, I think it will be prudent to give enough money to the KMTC in our areas for us to train our health workers. Finally, I want to touch on what is happening in the health sector in the country at the moment. The sad thing is that we, as a country, could allow our doctors to stay in jail for two days. I think it is a big indictment on this Government and I want to say that, that should never have been allowed to happen. Fortunately, now it has. What we are ending up doing is we are radicalising doctors and other medical staff. This is because all the health workers in this country are all restless. Clinical officers and nurses are restless and as a country, we must look at our priorities and see what we need to do. I want to propose one thing and I hope that when we bring up this Bill in future, all my colleagues will support it. In my view, I think it was wrong to devolve health, especially the human resource aspect. As a country, we have tested it. Now you can hear all the noise out there. Instead of doctors and other health workers treating our people, they are out in the streets. I think it was wrong to devolve the heath function, especially the human aspect. As a country, we must look at it and see how we can reverse it. Secondly, when we look at health services in this country, I think our priority is wrong again. We seem to think about the high end things and forget the basics. What am I talking about? We have this monster in our country called “leasing of medical equipment”. Every year we are allocating this programme Kshs4.5 billion with the aim that we have two hospitals in every county with high end equipment. We have walked around and I can say without any fear of contradiction that, that is corruption at its core. Why am I saying that? This is because as we look at the supplementary estimate for this financial year, we allocated that programme Kshs4.5 billion. This is the case and yet the other day, the Ministry brought us a supplementary budget of Kshs5.1 billion. Every year, this Parliament has faithfully been allocating that programme money and yet they now they want Kshs5.1 billion in the supplementary budget. I will say this without any fear of contradiction that, that is corruption and as a member of the Departmental Committee on Health, I stand and say that I will never append my signature to that because that is corruption. Thirdly, we have a Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Health who looks very timid. It is like he is being intimidated to a level where even his voice does not come out. The other day he was in the Senate where he accused his Principal Secretary of insubordination. I want to say this to Dr. Mailu who is a colleague. If he cannot work with this Government, then let him be man enough to resign. If not, I will ask the appointing authority to either move him somewhere else or even fire him altogether. You cannot come and say “my juniors” and yet you are the head of that Ministry. So, I am telling him; let him not mar his name. He is a good doctor. He was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nairobi Hospital and he did 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."
}