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{
    "id": 910966,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/910966/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 587,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": "Since the advent of devolution and the devolvement of health, and to a large degree, agriculture sector, the amount of money we have in the Budget and the amount of money that ends up in the counties to take care of the health sector cannot even be 2 per cent as opposed to the Abuja Declaration of 15 per cent. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, KEMSA has been tasked to procure and supply medicine to hospitals in the country. When I agreed to second Sen. Seneta on this Bill, it was on the appreciation of the noble goals that it has set in improving the health sector. This is because seven years down the devolution path, the health sector is still marred in serious difficulties. The amount of money given to counties is inadequate and corruption in the counties is making it difficult to get quality drugs. We have had questions and statements made on this Floor where some counties procured substandard and, sometimes, even expired drugs. Also, we have had the hawkers in the market bringing in generics whose quality is clearly not known. The Pharmacy and Poison Board appears also to be sleeping on the job because their ability to regulate and let in medicine that is good for human use is also in question. I will encourage Sen. Seneta that once this Bill is passed to visit the Pharmacy and Poison’s Board Act and see how its operations can also be aligned with devolution to help counties. I have even had private discussions with you and we have on many occasions agreed that health is too important to be left in the manner it is been run in the country. The counties have taken over hospitals. The national Government is left with very paltry section of health. There are only five referral hospitals in the country: Kenyatta National Hospital and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospitals are the most notable. The rest are Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital, Port Reitz for Communicable Diseases and Spinal Injury which do little things like dispensaries. However, in a proposed Budget of Kshs304 billion, which the national Government has put on the table, if you take out 15 per cent to health in accordance with Abuja Declaration, it still comes to less than Kshs40 billion for provision of health services for the whole of Kenya. About Ksh100 billion is left at the centre, where they are only concerned with policy and the national referral hospitals. In trying to help the counties, the philosophy of this Bill is so critical that we must have a guarantor to KEMSA for the supply of medicine to hospitals. The Bill talks of drawing rights. The language can even be made clearer that the national Government working in conjunction, co-operation, and collaboration with the counties under Article 6(2) of the Constitution must sit down and draft a clear contractual understanding. We all know that it is the national Government that disburses funds to the counties, then it stands in as a guarantor to the drawing rights; that no Kenyan is going to die of malaria, diarrhea and diseases that are easily preventable simply because there is no medicine in hospitals; two, that KEMSA will be obligated as a public body to avail drugs on request, which is what the proposer of this Bill is calling drawing rights. When a county is laying an order to KEMSA for the supply of their either quarterly or semi-annual supply of medicine, KEMSA is under legal duty to supply those drugs. The county is then legally obligated with the Controller of Budget to ensure that in The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}