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{
    "id": 800744,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/800744/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 304,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "What are we hearing today? We are getting the emergence of cancers all over the place, requiring us to put up cancer centres in various regional hubs. This is a very expensive way of going. Whereas we must be conscious of the curative aspect of it in order to alleviate the diseases burden within our society, we should also be going in full speed and steam in both the preventive and promotive aspect of our healthcare. That brings me to the core of the question of the lease-hire of health equipment. This is a very upsetting figure. From a figure of Kshs4.5 billion to Kshs9.4 billion leasing of medical equipment, I wish half of that money, the Kshs4 billion, went to preventive and promotive exercises. There is wear and tear on this equipment. I have used this equipment as a professional. After three or four years this equipment degenerates to a level where they must be replaced and there is no way they will be replaced. So, we will be left with junk equipment in yards. Some of them are radioactive, like the X-ray machines. Some of them are machines that we use for measuring certain biochemical data, which are labeled with chromium . These are dangerous materials that if we are not careful in the disposal process, we might end up with a much bigger problem in health than we have ever envisaged. Therefore, I would rather go for a very selective way of this medical equipment; very measured on how we want to bring it in, at what level and extent. By pumping more money to preventive and promotive healthcare, we shall achieve our universal healthcare system because it will be less expensive and more supportive. Madam Temporary Speaker, these conditional grants are welcome, but we want to have a framework upon which we can look at their audit books and see how this money is being spent at the county level. When you start to inquire at the county level how these funds are being used, nobody knows the details. Everybody will tell to go to the Ministry of Health. When you go there, they tell you that they were just given the tender. When you look for papers that brought all these equipment in, you are not told exactly how they came in. Therefore, I am passionately pleading that we now must change our tactics and way of doing things, particularly in managing the resources that are at our disposal. More so, when these resources come as conditional grants and are expected to raise our level of performance to an expected measure, we do not have a performance measuring yard. They just come in and walk out and you do not know who is coming in. It is another way of burdening us with many experts coming to tell us what we should do. In order to give more time to other people, I just want to support this with those few remarks. The amendment to the Division of Revenue Bill is welcome but let us see what these conditional grants will do. They must be very clear how they will be organised. Finally, Madam Temporary Speaker, I look forward, in the life of this Senate, when we should be able to have a Division of Revenue Bill based on the current Budget estimates, which now stands at over Kshs3 trillion. At the moment, we are below Kshs1 trillion based on 2013/2014 Financial Year audited accounts. I beg to support. 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."
}