The county government of Kisumu will reduce health and agriculture budgets in the 2016/17 financial year to fund programmes under the office of the governor.
According to the County Fiscal Strategy Paper 2016, Governor Jack Ranguma will slash the health budget from 30.8 per cent in the current financial year (2015/2016) to 28.9 in the next financial year.
The allocation to the office of the governor and county administration will be increased by over Sh178 million, with both recurrent and development expenditure being boosted.
The increased allocation is set to give priority to improvement of service delivery through strengthening sub county and ward administration structures, establishing of community policing authority and promotion of public participation through engaging citizens.
This is despite health and agriculture being the newly devolved functions that have been facing a myriad of challenges since the inception of devolved units.
Agriculture budgetary allocation is set to be slashed from 6.3 per cent to 5.6 but with recurrent expenditure reducing from Sh307 million to Sh286 million.
Under the reduced health budget for the FY 2016/17, Ranguma will give priority to activities aimed at scaling up primary health care services at the community level.
“Due to high disease burden already existing in the county, curative services will also be scale up,” said County Executive Committee member for Finance and Planning George Ongaya.
With the reduced allocation in agriculture, the county government still plans to improve the livestock sub sector and realise its full potential through investing and partnerships in high quality genetic resource base, efficiency in production system, disease and pest control as well as livestock extension services.
Ranguma also plans to carry out law enforcement and sensitise fishers to engage in aquaculture in order to ease fishing pressure in Lake Victoria.