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{
    "id": 975403,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/975403/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 171,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1835,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
        "slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
    },
    "content": " Hon. Speaker, on health, you note from current engagements out there, NHIF seems to be having issues that need to be adequately canvassed by the Departmental Committee on Health. The Committee should agree on what role the NHIF will play under the Universal Healthcare Pillar. You further note that, although it is indicated in the BPS that the Government will forge a multi-sectoral collaboration with the counties on the universal healthcare, such a framework on how that collaboration will work is yet to be agreed upon and implemented. How it will be implemented is still very unclear. You know health being a devolved function, it is important that, that is agreed between the two levels of Government. Let me not overemphasise the question of the Big Four Agenda. I have spoken about the expenditure framework. Let me touch on the issue of the decreased expenditure estimates as I mentioned. For the national Government, if you look at the BPS for 2021, the overall expenditure by the national Government is expected to decline to Kshs1.78 trillion from a figure of Kshs2 trillion in this current financial year of 2019/2020. However, despite those overall reductions, as I had observed, the recurrent expenditure is increasing by almost Kshs21 billion to Kshs24 billion on account of an increase in interest payments, wages and salaries as well as pension payments. On the other hand, development expenditure has been contracted by Kshs143.5 billion or 5 per cent of GDP. Indeed, the Committee has noted with concern that even as we move towards fiscal consolidation, we seem to be cutting or reducing expenditure on development expenditure and this will have a very huge impact even on the revenues that we expect to collect in the next financial year and even in the ongoing financial year. It meets the challenges I had mentioned at the beginning with our weather patterns, the invasion by locusts and coronavirus. This is further going to compound the expected revenue projections for the next financial year. As I had mentioned, even for the current financial year, our revenues seem to be dipping."
}