News

Involve the citizenry in legislative processes: Mwau

Makueni deputy governor Adelina Mwau has urged both the national and county governments to involve local communities in legislative processes.

Although the governments seem to have involved the people in most of their services and activities, the deputy governor said that there remains a gap in integration of their views into laws and policies they develop.

She said: “While the national and county governments seem to have involved the local communities in most of their services, there remains a lot to be done when it comes to engaging the citizenry in the legislative processes.”

Mwau spoke on Thursday at United States International University-Africa when she addressed delegates during the Second Conference on devolution for sustainable development adding that it is only through public participation and civic education that the local communities can be factored in the legislative priorities.

The DG’s sentiments were echoed by URAIA executive director Grace Maingi who also lauded Makueni for having implemented effective public participation, a model that drew several governors for benchmarking last month.

“Public participation and civic education is the way to go to ensure ownership and sustainability of development initiatives. I wish to congratulate Makueni for being successful in this,” Ms Maingi stated.

Mwau further observed that legislature should begin the process by educating the people on their rights and roles so as to be able to provide enlightened feedback.

“It is the high time we thought of delivering to the communities the sustainable development goals as a specific civic education program in order to contribute in the path of fulfilling the Kenya Vision 2030, the DG said.

We are ready to launch Thwake – CS Chelugui

Cabinet Secretary for Water and Sanitation Simon Chelugui now says the government is ready for the ground breaking for construction of Thwake dam.

During a consultative leaders” meeting on implementation of Thwake dam project held at Ole Sereni hotel, Nairobi, Tuesday, Chelugui said, “We have established working relations among all the stakeholders and are ready for ground breaking any time from now.”

The Cabinet Secretary said all the pending issues standing in the way of the project’s launch are being cleared to pave way for commencement of construction works.

One of the thorny challenges is compensation of a section of Project Affected Persons, which Chelugui says will be cleared in the next three weeks.

The meeting was attended by leaders from Makueni, Kitui, Machakos, representatives of those affected by the project, top leardership of the Water and Sanitation ministry as well as the contractor and and engineering consultants.

Governor Kibwana said leaders from the three counties have resolved to sensitise locals to fully accept and own the project and also to take advantage of the available job opportunities, including subcontracts.

According to the project engineer Sao Alima, Sh 11 Billion will be spend on subcontracts, which he said will benefit locals.

Makueni and Kitui will also benefit from Sh 30 million for schools improvement and Sh 50 million for community health facilities as part of the contractor’s Corporate Social Responsibility around the project area.

Mwau in talks with NGEC on collaboration

The National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC) today held a consultative meeting on possible areas of collaboration between Makueni County and the Commission.

The commission chairman Dr Joyce Mwikali who was accompanied by Deputy Governor Adelina Mwau said the two institutions would partner on a number of relevant areas.

The DG requested for technical support for the development of a guiding tool for SGBV and gender mainstreaming in public participation,development processes, budgeting and implementation that will eventually lead to the creation of a mainstreaming policy.

A memorandum of understanding will be developed and signed during the official commissioning of the Makueni Gender Based Violence Recovery Centre scheduled for October this year.

NGEC Commissioners Dr. Gumati, Florence, Nyokabi and the Ag. Chief Executive Officer Sora Katelo noted that Makueni is the first county to have initiated dialogue on gender and inclusion.

Executive Committee Member for Gender Culture and Social services Dr. Geoffrey Makau was also present.

Makueni County Volleyball Tournament Kicks off

The 2018 Makueni County volleyball tournament served off Saturday morning at Unoa grounds in Wote, Makueni County. The tournament, sponsored by the County Government of Makueni and Kenya Volleyball Federation attracted more than 38 teams, both men and women in different categories:

Senior teams
Self Supporting Clubs
Schools and colleges

Draws were conducted this morning to determine the pools and fixtures for the two-day tournament.

POOL A

GSU
KENYATTA NATIONAL HOSPITAL (KNH)

POOL B

PRISONS MOMBASA
ADMINISTRATION POLICE (AP KENYA )
WESTERN PRISONS

POOL C

PRISONS KENYA
VIHIGA COUNTY

POOL D

KENYA PORTS AUTHORITY (KPA)
KAHAWA GARRISON
KENYA AIRPORTS AUTHORITY

SENIOR WOMEN

PRISONS KENYA
KENYA COMMERCIAL BANK (KCB)
KENYA PIPELINE
DIRECTORATE OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION (DCI)
KAHAWA GARRISON

SELF SUPPORTING CLUBS

MEN

POOL A

BUNGE
WOTE AFYA
CBD

POOL B

K. MULTI-PURPOSE
SCORPION
KATULYE

POOL C

MAKINDU
MALEX LOGISTICS

POOL D

GROSSROAD
MACHAKOS UNITED
DAYSTAR VOLLEYBALL CLUB

WOMEN

MAKINDU
MALEX LOGISTICS
WOTE MKS
HIGHRISE
BUNGE

SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

MEN

WOTE TECHNICAL
MUTINGI SECONDARY SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI

WOMEN

KATULANI PRIMARY SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI

Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) National League and Makueni County Tournament

KVF in conjunction with the Government of Makueni County will host the 7^th Leg of the 2018 Edition and thereafter the Makueni County tournament at Unoa Sports ground in Wote town.

This is the second time after hosting the 6^th Leg of 2017 Edition, an indication of the confidence that KVF gained on the County Government’s ability to host an event of this magnitude.

We love such events so that our players and fans can have an opportunity to watch the elite clubs in the National League and also have experience to play against them during the tournament.

We thank our supporters who came in a big way: KCB, Wote branch and Nairobi Bottlers Ltd.

Welcome to Makueni County.

County staff sign new Performance Contracts as departments compete for glory

All employees of the Government of Makueni County will now work under performance contracts in order to improve service delivery.

The employees, including executive committee members, Chief Officers, directors, and chairpersons of various authorities under the county government signed the performance contracts on Monday, in an event presided over by governor Kivutha Kibwana and his deputy Adelina Mwau.

Those below the director level are expected to sign performance appraisals with their departmental heads before 18th September.

“The deputy governor and myself signed a 4-year performance contract with the people of Makueni County on 23rd March 2018. Our PC was developed in line with the CIDP and it is our expectation that departments have factored our PC in their PCs to ensure what we committed to do is achieved,” said governor Kibwana during the event.

“I want to emphasize that performance management must be entrenched as a culture in the way the Government of Makueni County delivers its services to the citizens (Mwene nthi),” he said.

The keys highlights of the performance contract the governor signed with the people of Makueni include:

WATER

Construction of 4 Mega dams (10 Million M3)
Promotion of household and institutional water harvesting targeting at least 100,000 HHs
Construction and extension of additional 10,000 Km of water pipeline
Entrenchment of climate change mainstreaming and increasing forest cover by 50%

AGRICULTURE

4,880 New hectares put under irrigation and crop production.
Increase milk production from 28M Kg per year to 43M Kg per year
Consolidate the agro-processing initiatives – Kalamba fruit processing, Kikima Dairy processing, Leather tannery and cottage industry and Abattoir with Disease free zone
Halfing the % of Households depending on food aid

HEALTH

Provision of universal health care targeting 150,000 households in Makueni.
Investing in diagnostic infrastructure, technology and equipment to facilitate investigation and screening in all health facilities; enhancing & automating health care and staffing of health facilities.

YOUTH, WOMEN AND PEOPLE LIVING WITH DISABILITIES SOCIAL & ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

Establishment of a county scholarship endowment fund
Creation of 100,000 job opportunities for youth directly and indirectly
Enhancing access to market relevant skills/training by the youth, PLWDs and PLHIV to make them more marketable

INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING, CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT & CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

Improve public service productivity through performance management
Human capital management and development
Development and implementation of structures that support citizen engagement, development of partnerships and resource mobilization

Uraia to partner with Makueni for Civic Education

Uraia Trust, Kenya’s National Civic Education Programme has pledged its support for a widespread civic education in Makueni.

Uraia Trust Civic Education Manager Abubakar Said pledged the organization would stock a library of civic education materials to aid in civic education within the county.

“We are working on a mission to ensure every household has a constitution, and are versed with its provisions as a way of adding value to devolution.” he said, during a courtesy call to governor Prof Kivutha Kibwana in his office at Wote, Monday.

Kibwana urged the civic education body to push for a translation of the constitution into local dialects, urguing that the language barrier was a huge hinderance to the understanding of the constitution by a majority of Kenyans.

He said many of those who fought for the constitution had forgotten about its implementation.

“Many fought for the constitution but after its promulgation, they forgot that its implementation is a continuous process and there is need for active civic education,” said Kibwana.

“Many ordinary Kenyans are yet to fully understand the constitution because of the language it is written in. Even when we make speeches at the grassroots, we are careful not to speak a lot of English as the people will not follow, and at times they will leave mid way your speech if you bore them,” he told the Uraia trust delegation.

Kibwana said his administration has heavily invested in civic education so that the people are part of the development process, and that they do so from an informed point of view.

“We are not afraid of a citizenry that asks questions and holds us to account. It is better to allow them ask questions now and even quarrel than wait to tell you how useless you were, and how you failed to help them long after you have left power.” said the governor.

Kibwana said his ambition is to formulate a civic education program that educates residents on a holistic social economic development, including health promotion, income generation, agricultural best practices and related initiatives so that residents do not only interact with government officers during budget making only.

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

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.