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{
    "id": 850039,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/850039/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 344,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1835,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
        "slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Chairman. I want to support, especially the further amendment in having it end at the word “Authority”. What the Leader of the Majority Party has said is actually what is happening today in this country. If you go to KEMSA today, and those who sit in the Departmental Committee on Health and the Public Investments Committee (PIC) will be able to tell you, there are a lot of drugs that are expiring there. At the same time, the same drugs are procured from commercial entities by our county governments and other hospitals in our national Government. It is for that simple reason that the Leader of the Majority Party has called it “the desire for kickbacks”. It is immoral that we can have a Government agency whose sole mandate is to procure and distribute drugs in this country, then we allow the same public resources that we have given to county governments and other Government institutions like the Kenyatta National Hospital and the other referral hospitals to go and procure drugs, in most instances, at prices that are much higher than those being given at KEMSA. The import of the further amendment that the Leader of the Majority Party has done is very good. I thank him. Simply, if we left it as it is, it would be very easy to manipulate, as Hon. Kioni was saying. What they will do is that a procurement officer in a county government like Kiambu County, for instance, is to simply talk to the local pharmacist to reduce the price of a drug by 25 cents therefore justify buying from those commercial entities. How efficacious these drugs are is not clear. Therefore, I support this amendment because, besides supporting KEMSA as a Government institution, it will also ensure that the quality of drugs being dispensed in our health facilities, especially those being managed by county governments are drugs that are of the right quality and price. With that, I beg to support. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}