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{
    "id": 1363755,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1363755/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 356,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Molo, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Kuria",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "and miscommunication around contraception and family planning. Some of them are as a result of conflicting messages being given by the political class and religious leaders. On matters of human development that I alluded to earlier, the Human Development Index (HDI) summarises the country's achievement in providing its citizens with quality education, health care, longevity and the necessities to lead a decent life. It is very important to note that latest data on HDI estimates Kenya to be at 0.579, which is slightly lower compared to the country with the highest, which is Norway, at 0.954, but we are doing quite well because the lowest is Niger at 0.377. The quality of a decent life measured through HDI seemed to improve in Kenya, something we must really applaud Kenyans and everyone for. Annual changes in HDI since 1990 has been about 0.77. Currently, we have moved from the low- developing countries to developed countries in terms of quality of life as measured by HDI. Between 1990 and 2018, Kenya's life expectancy at birth increased by 8.9 years. The mean years of going to school has increased by 2.8 years and the expected years in school has increased by two years. We continuously see more people going to and taking longer in school. This has a positive correlation with what we see in human capital. In addition to speaking the national language, compared to our neighbours, our command of English is quite good. That is why the demands for human capital especially in English-speaking countries is higher than that of our neighbours. You can see the increased number of years of study has a positive correlation to the quality of human capital that we have as a country. Kenya's Gross National Income (GNI) per capita increased by 34.7 per cent. Again, this can be attributed to the things that I spoke to earlier about the quality of life in terms of health care, education, access to school, access to good nutrition and prudent use of family planning. On the morbidity and mortality issue that I alluded to, it is interesting that life expectancy in men increased from 47 to 64 years since 1968. For women, it has increased from 54 to 69 years. Women have a longer life expectancy. I do not know what we could attribute this to. I think women are less risk-takers; they make better decisions. Perhaps because they mostly prepare our meals, they take the best nutrition of those meals. They also take good care of their mental health. Women will spend their time at the spa, the salon or shopping. They generally take good care of their mental health. Therefore, this can be the reason for the increase in life expectancy for women compared to men. Men, on the other hand, are known to mislead each other. They spend their time doing all the harmful things to their bodies. It is a challenge to men in this country. We are doing very badly. Our life expectancy has significantly reduced. Women have a longer life expectancy of 69 years compared to men at 64 years. We need to take good care of ourselves so that we do not run the risk of being extinct in the next few years. As the spouse of the Deputy President says, the carrier of the seed needs to be protected. In this Sessional Paper, you can see that the carrier of the seed is under threat for the reasons that I have given above. I urge this House to interact with Sessional Paper No.1 of 2023 on the Kenyan National Population Policy for Sustainable Development and urge all agencies in Government to use data in their decision making. There is the decision that is made, for example, by the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC) on equitable revenue sharing formula between the national Government and county governments. Whether it is the allocation of the NG-CDF or the County Allocation of Revenue Act, there is need for resources to be shared based on data. Once we remove politics from our Budget and do not have it as a tool then even the heavily contested elections we experience every five years cycle will go down. For example, if all people in the country could be certain and sure they will have development in their areas irrespective of the way they voted, their community and beliefs, even the political intolerance, religious extremism and atrocities we see being done on other communities like the unfortunate thing happening in Lamu will end. Examples of extremisms are cattle rustling and banditry happening in Kerio Valley and Pokot. Majority of the times, it is a matter of The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}