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{
    "id": 639294,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/639294/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 164,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Mulu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1955,
        "legal_name": "Benson Makali Mulu",
        "slug": "benson-makali-mulu"
    },
    "content": "leased medical equipment. My expectation would have been that because we are doing this for the second year, then the allocation to Level 5 hospitals would reduce because the equipment is provided by the national Government. However, this figure has remained constant. This is an area where we are giving money, but the services are not improving as we expect. There is also an allocation of Ksh900 million to compensate the county health facilities for forgone user fees. While these facilities are very important, we have serious challenges in terms of staffing. Medical personnel are very scarce in these facilities. People are not accessing services because it is the personnel who provide the services and not the equipment. As you can see, most of the allocations to the sector are in terms of conditional grants. The bigger question is whether, even as we continue to appropriate a lot of money to the health sector, we are realising value for money in terms of the resources being translated into improved service to Kenyans. More likely, majority of Kenyans will answer no to that question. As a House, we need to start doing proper monitoring of the resources that we release to county governments and the national Government to make sure these resources are translated into improved service. The Kshs4.3 billion allocation for road maintenance is very important. This will go a long way in assisting us to improve our road infrastructure. As you are aware, there is a case in court stopping road engineers from using the money. This matter needs to be resolved as quickly as possible, so that Kenyans get value for the money. The other issue in this Bill is the repayment of public debt. It is going to increase from the current Kshs362 billion to Kshs433 billion. We have said many times in this House that public debt needs to be properly managed. When you look at the international indicators, we are not doing very badly, but we need to be cautious in terms of the amount of debt we are incurring as a country. This debt has serious implications to the economy. If we do not do that, we will have issues. I want to raise general issues briefly. As a House, we are allocating money to programmes every year. Time has come for us to demand to know how much has been cumulatively allocated to each programme, so that, as a House, we can know how much we have allocated to different programmes. That way, we can ask the hard questions like how much more we need to allocate, so that the programmes can be completed. The other matter I want to raise is the issue of our Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Reports. Every year, PAC looks at reports and makes serious observations. We also get audit reports from the Auditor-General. As a House, time has come for us to ask the hard questions. If a Ministry has been mentioned to have misappropriated funds, do we really need to give them more resources or do we need to give them lesser resources, so that we start controlling how the resources are used? We have been told that the Ministry in charge of Public Service, Youth and Gender has misappropriated about Kshs180 million. If you look at this Bill, we are proposing to give them more money. The question is whether we want to give money to people who have misappropriated resources. This is an important question. I will also want to speak on the issue of the Equalisation Fund. This is the third year we are giving the Kshs6 billion. However, this money has never been used in any year. Why should we continue appropriating more money for the Equalisation Fund when it is not being used? The last point is on the Emergency Fund for the county governments. It is important for them to set aside funds for emergencies because emergencies cannot be avoided. With those remarks, I support the Bill. 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."
}