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{
    "id": 498632,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/498632/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 322,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Murungi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 93,
        "legal_name": "Kiraitu Murungi",
        "slug": "kiraitu-murungi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Motion. We, in Meru County, are very embarrassed because – when I talk about embarrassment, I am talking about pecuniary embarrassment – the Level Five hospital in Meru which we used to call the Meru General Hospital is on the verge of collapse. The annual recurrent expenditure for that hospital is about Kshs300 million. You know the struggle we went through in this House when we tried to increase the allocation of funds for Level Five hospitals. Although there were revisions in figures, we, in Meru County, got the lowest amount in allocations because out of our request of Kshs300 million which is the budget that has been given to us in the last financial year, this year we were only given Kshs68 million. We do not know what to do with the Kshs68 million; whether to buy drugs, to pay some staffers and not others or to close part of the hospital. Madam Temporary Speaker, I think when these funds are being allocated, it is very important to look at the functions that are taking place at an institution instead of drawing a line and giving out the money arbitrarily without any basis at all. We have told them to spend the money and when it is finished, those who gave us will tell us what to do with the hospital. We are staring at a crisis because maybe that money is going to run out by December this year and we will be staring at a new crisis in January largely because of poor planning of public finances particularly in the health sector. We have seen what the devolved funds have done. All our dispensaries and health centres are now well equipped. We are regularly getting supplies of medicine. In the past, we used to wait even a whole year without any delivery of drugs taking place. I must comment the County Government of Meru, especially our County Executive officer for health Dr. Morara, because he has done a great job in making sure that health facilities are well equipped and we have also got ambulances in some of the health facilities which we had asked for, for many years, but we could not be given. I must say that we are enjoying the benefits of devolution in the health sector in those lower levels but there is a real challenge in Level Five hospitals. Madam Temporary Speaker, this Motion is very important because I know there is a push in the Senate for us to have referral hospitals in every county, even in the counties where the Level Five hospitals do not exist today. We expect that in the next few years, there are going to be at least 47 county Level Five hospitals in all the counties. The challenge we are going to face is the retention of qualified specialists in those counties. We are already experiencing this problem. There are some counties where we do not have enough indigenous specialists and we have to rely on other counties. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}