Murang’a Governor Irungu Kang’ata has refuted claims that he plans to incentivise pregnancies to increase the county’s population.
Reports from some media houses suggested that the governor planned to give Sh6,000 to pregnant women to motivate more people to give birth.
Concerns have been raised over the rising alcoholism that has reduced men into zombies and rendered them dependent on their parents.
But the governor said his government has drafted a health policy that has been tabled in the county assembly to accord expectant mothers the money as way of reducing maternal and infants’ mortality deaths.
Speaking during the inauguration of county executive on Wednesday, Kang’ata said some women in the grassroots still prefer to give birth at home which places their lives and those of their children at risk.
He said a survey indicated that most of the women fail to deliver in hospitals because of transport costs despite the Linda Mama programme that was initiated by the Jubilee government to provide free maternity for mothers.
The county has a population of more than 1 million people and is 2,500 square kilometres big yet it has less than 40 maternity facilities.
“Just today, I met a group of people from Kinyona in Kigumo who were asking me to consider opening a maternity ward at Gikoe because their women have to travel many kilometres to Kigumo health centre or Kangari," he said.
This, he said, informed the new policy that aims at reimbursing transport costs to women in their eighth and ninth months of pregnancies and during delivery.
The policy proposes that women will receive Sh2,000 for each of the two last months of their pregnancies and another Sh2,000 for their travel to the hospital to deliver.
Kang’ata said the other choice was to build as many maternity centres as possible across the county which he said would take time and lots of funds.
“The intention is to arrest maternal and infant mortality in Murang’a. No woman should die while giving birth and the main cause is home deliveries because it is delivering a baby without a professional around you.”
The governor said the size of a family can only be determined by parents and that the government cannot force people to have fewer or more children.
“It is parents who analyze their economic status and decide how many children are rational to have," he said.
He said while the proposal is the only way to discourage women from home deliveries, the policy will have to be scrutinised and passed by the county assembly.
He urged MCAs to prioritise it and pass it once they deem it good.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)
