The Murang’a County Assembly has proposed an increase in the funding for the health sector in the 2025/2026 budget to ensure improved service delivery in all local hospitals.
In a report on the county government Annual Development Plan (ADP) tabled in the Assembly, the MCAs said Sh800 million should be allocated to facilitate purchase of pharmaceutical supplies to be distributed to all public health facilities within the county.
Presenting the report, the Chairperson of the Assembly’s sectorial Committee for Finance and Economic Planning, John Kibaiya said with increased budgetary allocation in the sector it will widen the range of quality services in the Level 5 and 4 hospitals thereby increasing the health sector’s revenue base.
“There has been tremendous improvement in the health sector since the current regime took over, especially through the Kang’ata Care programme. However, we have not been allocating enough money to meet the demand for medical drugs due to shortage and competition of resources within departments,” Kibaiya added.
The Gatanga MCA further noted that the ADP presented the development trajectory the county government wishes to undertake to achieve its set objectives and priorities.
Kibaiya hailed the report saying that it has equally accommodated every sector in the county and will ensure that all projects are funded and actualized in the course of the next financial year.
“The ADP is the basis of the budgeting process and no project can be in the budget without being in the ADP first. If the process is conducted right, the budget process will be simplified, clear and we shall not need supplementary budgets,” he remarked.
Kibaiya urged all sectoral committees to review their work plans regularly and ensure they stick to the development trajectory.
He also thanked the members of the public who made oral submissions and submitted their written memoranda on the ADP.
The chair also observed that the report has been committed to the various sectoral committees for review in line with their respective mandates and also embraced proposals from the public participation forums.
Members of the committee in their recommendations called upon the county public service administration to come up with ways of motivating their personnel indicating that this has a great correlation with the achievement of targets and outputs in the approved projects.
In the ADP it was also proposed the county administration to allocate funds to modernize the Ikundu Coffee factory to be able to serve the entire county in milling farmers’ coffee.
Modernization of the factory located in Maragua area was hailed as a move to help revive the coffee sector since it will help farmers to fetch better earnings for sale of processed coffee.
While supporting the report, nominated MCA Gladys Wambui said rehabilitation of Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga cultural centre needs to be factored in the next financial year budget as one way to promote local tourism.
“It is high time Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga is rehabilitated and made recognized as a cultural site so that it can attract tourists, preserve the heritage of our forefathers and earn the county some revenue,” she said.
By Bernard Munyao and Alex Ndegwa