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{
    "id": 944456,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/944456/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 428,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "If we were to pay 20 community health workers the minimum wage, it would still be equivalent to the pay of one County Executive Committee (CEC) Member. There are counties where governors have numerous advisors who are paid hundreds of thousands of shillings. Each has a vehicle, an office, a budget for tea and mandazis, for walking around the county to inspect projects and to accompany the governor. Is it better to have one advisor for health services or to break down the salary and finance an entire community health unit? My view is that a prudent governor will ensure that he or she has more numbers of people delivering a service and fewer numbers of people providing advice. I encourage counties that investment in health is not expensive. If they think it is expensive, they should try ill health. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, many of us sitting here today have patients in hospitals. My mother has been in hospital for 70 days in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). When a person is in the ICU in a private hospital, you pay, at least, Kshs100,000 a day. How many Kenyans are able to afford these costs? It is a shame that every other day I walk into a private hospital to see my mother knowing well that every year, I approve in the Senate billions of shillings to go to the counties to provide ICU services. Setting up an ICU room does not require a physician or a nuclear scientist. It is possible to set up ICU facilities in our counties with the money that we send to them every year. It is possible for county governments to ensure at the county level, main hospitals have at least 10 ICU beds and at sub-county level, each hospital has at least five or ten ICU beds. However, it has to take the First Lady to go around counties to distribute some wagons for county governments yet the money that we send every year is supposed to finance the most critical devolved function which is health care. It is a shame! Last week, when I was in my county I met a community health worker. He told me that the County Assembly of Homa Bay has passed the relevant legislation that 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."
}