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{
    "id": 843168,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/843168/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 143,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I oppose this Motion very strongly. Sen. Outa is one of the most astute and passionate Members of my Committee on Security, Defence and Foreign Relations. I would like to know, from the Leadership and the Whip, why he is being removed from an already strained committee and why he is getting more responsibilities. I do not know if the diligence is a Kisumu thing because Sen. Nyamunga is the same. I am glad that the members of staff from Kisumu County Assembly are here. I want to tell them wan kanyakla, wan kanyachiel and they should pass my greetings to my brother, the Speaker of Kisumu County Assembly, Mr. George Onyango Oloo. On a serious note, in the past, it has been a tradition that when a Member of the House--- I am not sure about the Senate, though I know that when the late Otieno Kajwang passed on, the committees he sat in were left vacant because he was in the Joint Committee on National Cohesion and Equal Opportunities that I used to chair and he was replaced by the Senator of that same county who took over. It will be important for us to understand whether that tradition has changed because I am sure the same happened to Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. He went to the same communities that the previous Senator for Makueni was in. If it is not the tradition, I would like to know whether we are overburdening Sen. Outa. For those reasons, until I am convinced and we vote, I strongly oppose this Motion. However, allow me to add my two cents to the fact that health is the most important devolved function. In fact, those who have clamoured for health to go back to the national Government must as well say that we scrap devolution. Health is one function that is felt across the country by all households. It is one function that is a matter of life and death. So, if this is to strengthen that Committee, then I will support. I will support if it is to give that Committee more presence, the ability to focus on the current issues and the ability to innovate about solutions, especially with respect to universal healthcare and how to fund it. I will give you an example. This Committee should propose conditional grants to certain counties. For instance, Nairobi City County needs only Kshs2.4 billion to ensure that 486,000 households in this county are able to get healthcare. This is money, even without going through the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), if managed well by county governments will be used to pay doctors and fund hospitals."
}