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{
    "id": 1102416,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1102416/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 300,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Kang’ata",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1826,
        "legal_name": "Irungu Kang'ata",
        "slug": "irungu-kangata"
    },
    "content": "of Kenyans have perished, and our hospitals are currently pressured by so many COVID- 19 patients. When you look at the money that is allocated to counties for matters health, it is very little. This money that we are going to pass today, ought to give counties that ability to put more money into the health sector. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, allow me to give you an example of Murang’a County. It has about 318,000 households as per the 2019 Census. Out of that, I checked that the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) cards have been taken by about 18,000 public servants and about 18,000 private sector workers. So, let us say all factors remaining constant, about 40,000 households are the only ones that have an NHIF card. I strongly believe that counties that have been managed well should use these resources to ensure thousands of households get NHIF cards. It is only Kshs6,000 per annum per family. When you look at the money that we fought to take to the counties, it is possible for every household, for instance, in Murang’a County, to be fully covered by NHIF. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for instance, assume Murang’a County Government was to insure 100,000 households. That would translate to about Kshs600,000. The question is: Can Murang’a County afford such kind of sums? When we were debating the revenue sharing formulae in this House, originally, Murang’a County was set to lose about almost Kshs150 million as per some of the permutations that were being considered by this honourable House. I am glad to report that I was the Chief Whip then. We were able to come up with a formula that was a win-win situation. As a result of it, Murang’a County is getting an extra Kshs890 million. So, it is possible for Murang’a County, for instance, to use the Kshs890 million extra that I was able to push in that county to fund 100,000 households to get National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) cards for free. That is only an extra burden of about Kshs600 million."
}