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"id": 977766,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Garissa Township, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Aden Duale",
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"id": 15,
"legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
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"content": "The President sent us two names from two different regions and communities. The statutory institutions under the Act - the EACC, the DCI, the KRA and the HELB - are obligated to give their opinion on the nominees, whether they comply with the functions of those institutions. We want to confirm that those institutions have given these two nominees, Hon. Mutahi Kagwe and Betty Maina, a clean bill of health. Hon. Mutahi Kagwe was a Member of this House between 2003 and 2007. He was also the Senator for Nyeri between 2013 and 2017. He was also a Cabinet Minister. I do not know how he performed then because I was not in Parliament. Maybe the record of PAC and other parliamentary reports will show. Even in those reports of Parliament, we did not find any adverse mention of Hon. Mutahi Kagwe. He really convinced us. Let me be very honest, and I kept telling the Leader of the Minority Party who was sitting next to me that if you look at those people we have vetted in the Fourth Session, Cabinet Secretary nominees with political backgrounds perform far much better. I have nothing against the technical team and those who come from the private sector or the public service. That is why, in my presentation as the leader of the pastoralists, we said going forward, Ministers must come from the House. Right now, even the Member for Gem could have been an Assistant Minister, driving a GK vehicle. So, going forward, let us recommend that. Number two, if this House approves Hon. Mutahi Kagwe, he will have another function, namely the health function in Nairobi County. The transfer of the health function at Nairobi County to the national Government is an extra responsibility. The problem is that people do not read the law. If you read Article 187 of the Constitution and Sections 24 to 29 of the Intergovernmental Relations Act, the principles and procedure of transfer of functions are well stipulated. I think the President, the Governor of Nairobi, the Attorney-General and the Cabinet Secretary for Devolution acted within the law. If you read particularly the Act, the 21 days window before the transfer takes effect is when public participation is to be done. Hon Speaker, this is a wakeup call to all governors. That is why the framers of the Constitution put in place Article 187, that if any function is not done well by one level of Government, it is transferred to another level. That is what the framers of the Constitution had contemplated. I am sure Hon. Mbadi and the Chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee are here. I am sure the Division of Revenue Bill this year will have a column for that. The resources which were given from the national Government to Nairobi County, both in the Kenya Allianceof Resident Associations (KARA) and the Division of Revenue Bill, must be returned to the national Government. I think Hon. Mutahi Kagwe has serious issues to deal within the Ministry of Health. He must deal with the Report which is being investigated by the Senate Health Committee. He should clean up the Ministry of Health in terms of the NHIF mess. The NHIF cannot claim to be a social security portfolio at the same time compete with other private insurance funds and remain unregulated by the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA). If I want to buy their premiums for Ksh500,000, of which Parliament pays on my behalf, then that becomes a social security aspect. It is for other Kenyans. However, if they want to compete with Jubilee Insurance, then they must be under IRA. They must provide how claims have been launched and how many have been paid on a weekly or monthly basis. Otherwise, they cannot have both ways. Hon. Speaker, Mrs. Betty Maina has a long history in the private sector. She was the CEO of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers. She also worked for KEPSA and was the Principal Secretary for Environment, Trade and Industrialisation. One thing must come out clearly that pending bills must be paid. 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."
}