Skip to content Skip to left sidebar Skip to footer

Month: August 2018

150 young people to benefit from agribusiness training scholarships

At least 150 young people from Makueni County will undergo an intensive three months agribusiness training at the Miramar International College, Nairobi.

The 150 are representatives from the 30 wards, awarded scholarships by the German International Development Agency (GIZ), through the County government and KCB foundation.

The youths will be trained on hydroponics technology at the college for three months, and undergo a further three month training at the field.

They will also undergo business incubation where they will learn how to develop business and marketing plans besides enjoying discounted financing and ready market for their products.

This training is spearheaded by the Makueni Youth Empowerment Service (M-YES) and Makueni County Government’s department of Education,Youth, Sports and ICT.

The 150 youths were flagged off to Nairobi by governor Prof Kivutha Kibwana, GIZ advisor on Employment for Sustainable Development Dr.Henrik Schmidtke and KCB senior manager partnerships John Waimiri at ATC Kwakathoka Wednesday.

Governor Kibwana said his administration will continue to invest in projects that create jobs or enable youths to start their own businesses.

“It is our hope that initiatives like this one shall make agriculture more attractive to youth, promote use of technology in Agriculture, improve young people’s skills and enable them create job opportunities in Agribusiness,” he said.

“Engaging the youth population fully is therefore nolonger a choice but an imperative in the development process that is also recognised by the Makueni County Government Vision 2025,” Kibwana said further.

Dr.Schmidtket said the economic potential of the youth working in the informal sector is far from being fulfilled, mainly due to their insufficient access to knowledge, information and education, limited access to capital assets including land, inadequate access to financial services and limited access to markets.

He said providing youth in the informal sector with skills and enterprise development is a critical driver of job creation, income generation and overall improvement of livelihoods.

Go for Tetheka Funds: DG urges women traders

Makueni deputy governor Adelina Mwau has advised women to go for readily available government funded loaning facilities to help grow their businesses.

Mwau who spoke at a women empowerment event held at Masongaleni ward in Kibwezi East sub county said the government availed loans were easy to access and conditions easy to meet for women seeking to grow their small scale businesses.

Mwau, called on Makueni women to embrace the readily available tetheka fund as an opportunity.

“The county is offering opportunities through various schemes and women should not be left behind but should be among those benefiting from some of these programs,” Adelina said.

The group of women in leadership drawn from the council of governor’s and the UN focused more on motivating the most of the societies afflicted; women and the youth to grab whatever available resources offered by both county and the national governments.

Other speakers accompanying the deputy governor were the CEC gender, children, culture and social services in Makueni Dr. Godfrey Makau, the area MCA Richard Kasyoki among others.

Previous beneficiaries of the Tetheka fund spend time explaining the benefits of the funds started by the county government to support small scale businesses.

The fund has seen many women and youth venture into businesses such as poultry keeping, goat keeping, water tanks merry-go-rounds across the county

  • August 22, 2018 in News

Makueni Secures Ksh. 168 Million from World Bank

Makueni County has secured a Ksh168 million grant from the World Bank to advance its devolution development agenda.

The grant, disbursed through the national ministry of Devolution, under the Kenya Devolution Support Programme (KDSP) is meant for capital investments and building capacities for improved devolved service delivery.

Makueni is among 13 counties that have received a total of Sh 1.9 Billion under the programme.

The 13 were competitively selected from the 47 counties upon achievement of respective disbursement linked parameters key among them audited accounts.

Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa who presented cheques to the qualifying governors urged the county chiefs to channel the funds to the BIG FOUR agenda.

Deputy governor Adelina Mwau has said the funds will be channeled towards key sectors of the county economy such as Water, Agricultural value chain addition and health promotion

Makueni county executive for Finance and Social Economic planning Mary Kimanzi said the cabinet would sit to decide on the projects to invest the grant in, and which will positively impact on the lives of Makueni residents.

The event was held at the Laico Regency hotel in Nairobi.

Government releases Ksh 3.5 billion to fund Thwake dam project: Ruto

The government last week released Sh 3.5 billion to finance the construction of Thwake dam Deputy President William Ruto said on Monday.

The money released by the government is part of the Sh 63 billion budget for the construction of the dam, a major investment by the National Government in the county.

“Last week the government released Sh 3.5 billion for the Thwake dam project and President Kenyatta will soon be here to officially launch it,”Mr Ruto said.

He was speaking during the official launch of the International Youth Week at the ATC Kwa Kathoka in Makueni where  he told the residents that the Jubilee government has major plans for the county.

The DP was accompanied by  Makueni Governor Prof Kivutha Kibwana, Deputy Governor Adelina  Mwau, Public Service,Youth and Gender Cabinet Secretary  Prof Margaret Kobia and her Sports counterpart Rashid Achesa.

Makueni County, the DP said was at the center of the Jubilee government’s development plans.

He took time to explain  the Jubilee government’s agenda four programs adding that towns in rural areas will benefit greatly from the initiative  that includes a multibillion housing plan  meant to improve shelter in the country.

He said young people are  key to the country’s future and that the Jubilee government has decided to invest in their education and manpower development.

“We need safe spaces in our colleges.I am happy am talking to our people here who are college students,” he said.

He said plans have been put in place to  give Sh 30,000 bursary to technical college students while Tvet college scholars will be allowed access to Higher Education Loans Board loans of not more than Sh 40,000 annually.

Prof Kibwana hailed the DP for having found time to grace the youth event in Makueni adding the locals are now ready to work with the government through the handshake initiative to realize tangible development.

“We are happy Mr DP for having found time to grace this event.As the people of Makueni we are now ready to work with the government.This handshake has deradicalised us,” the governor said.

He said his government had come up with a youth led initiative- the Makueni Youth Empowerment Service (M-YES) to help create opportunities for the over 350,000 young people in the county.

Prof Kobia said that the youth had become a global agenda and that her ministry will roll out plans to ensure issues affecting the young people economically and socially are dealt with.

“The theme for this  year’s youth week is safe spaces for the youth and we ask ourselves to what extent are we creating safe spaces for the youth.How do we empower the youth to be able to do what they are able to do,” the CS said.

Mwau said the county was happy to host the major event and urged the government to create opportunities for young people and women.