Day: February 6, 2020

A section of Makueni leaders led by governor Kivutha Kibwana, County Commissioner Maalim Mohammed, assembly speaker Douglas Mbilu and former KANU minister Peter Maundu led citizens of Makueni in paying their tribute to fallen former president Daniel Moi Thursday.

Speaker after speaker eulogized Moi as a patriotic leader who unified the country through his clarion call of Peace, Love and Unity despite the ferocious clamour for constitutional reforms for most part of his presidency.

“I may not have had a good relationship with the former president due to my leadership of the pro-reform movement which roughed the former president the wrong way. I must however commend him for the inclusivity in leadership of his government.” Said Kibwana.

“Moi is credited for laying a firm foundation for education in Kenya. The proliferation of Universities in the country was driven by Moi, who as a teacher saw the need for an educated generation,” the governor said further.

Kibwana said Moi’s executive power was felt across the country because he appointed ministers and their assistants from every corner of the country. He said this was the reason the former president was able to rule for 24 years.

The Makueni governor also applauded Moi for overseeing a smooth transition of power in 2002, when he would have used the state machinery to rig in his preferred successor.

According to Kibwana, the only thing he regrets is not getting an opportunity to sit with the former president and speaking one-on-one about the issues he and his pro-reform cohorts were fighting for.

“I wish I had an opportunity to sit with him and to tell him that the ‘Fimbo ya Nyayo’ was hard on us but we had to do what we did for the good of Kenya. I also would have told him I hold no grudges against him for the suffering we and our families went through,” said the governor.

Mr. Maundu who served as an assistant minister in the office of the president and a KANU elected MP for Makueni termed the former president as a person who loved young people and propelled many into leadership.
“He was simply a mentor to the youth. Many of us were trusted with high leadership positions as assistant ministers in our early thirties. He even allowed us to represent the country internationally and he believed in the feedback we brought,” he said.

Makueni has secured a Sh 30 million funding from Nutrition International to scale up efforts towards elimination of malnutrition in the next three years.

The grant is complimentary to the county’s Sh 36 million for the same cause, and which is meant to actualize the implementation of the County Nutrition Action Plan (CNAP) unveiled late 2019.

The Makueni CNAP targets the reduction of the prevalence of stunting among children under five years by 40%, childhood wasting to less than 5%, childhood underweight to less than 10%, and reduce malnutrition among older children and adolescent by 15%.

According to the Kenya Demographic Health Survey 2014, the prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight in Makueni County was 25.1%, 2.1% and 10.2% respectively.

The funding agreement was signed today in Nairobi by the executive for Finance Mary Kimanzi and executive for Health Services Dr. Andrew Mulwa for the county government and witnessed by governor Kivutha Kibwana, deputy governor Adelina Mwau and the Nutrition International President Joel Spicer.

The county has also received 30,000 Euros (Sh 3.2 million) funding from Hivos East Africa to finance the Makueni Mango and indigenous food festival scheduled for this month at the Makueni Fruit Processing Plant, Kalamba.

The overall objective of the food festival is to promote mango production and consumption of indigenous food in Makueni, governor Kibwana has said.

The festival seeks to stimulate the rediscovery of the value of the Mango and indigenous foods through showcasing the rich gastronomic heritage of the Akamba and marketing the County as a Mango County and presenting the opportunities in the Mango value chain.