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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.

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

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.

DG leads negotiations with Israeli global solar firm

Deputy Governor Adelina Mwau has said Makueni County has greater potential in solar energy that remains an attraction to investors in the green energy sector.

Mwau who met a top Israeli green energy investor the CEO of Gigawatts Global Mr Yosef Abramowitz in Nairobi on Thursday said that despite the potential, most households in Makueni County remained unlit with electricity cost too prohibitive for the locals.

Mwau said the county has opened doors to potential investors showing interest in solar harvesting in the area adding that the county’s 10 hours of sunshine a day could be turned into a blessing through solar harvesting initiatives.

“Our county has not benefitted majorly from the national government’s rural electrification plan.This could be the way out. It could help us get power and facilitate the lighting of the Makueni villages,”Mwau said.

Speaking during the meeting Mr Abramowitz said Gigawatts Global is interested in potential partnership in the energy related areas.

He said his organisation is a leader in green energy installations around the world and that the company has successfully ventured in Africa adding that any initiative in Makueni will be supported.

“We are open to any working relationship with Makueni county.We are impressed by the strong governance credentials shown by the county government.It shows it will be very easy for us to work with you,”Mr Abramowitz said.

Transport ECM Sebastian Kyoni who was also present said the county is ready to work with Gigawatts Global once they are ready to make a move.

“We have the capacity to host a major solar power investment.If Gigawatts makes a move we will partner with them,” he said.

Taita Taveta County Officials in Makueni to learn new tricks

A delegation from Taita Taveta county government on Tuesday started a two-day tour of Makueni County to study the climate change policy and the implementation of sand conservation and utilization.

The Taita Taveta Deputy Governor Majala Mlaghui who is the leader of the delegation said her team was visiting to study the milestones achieved by Makueni County in climate change, sand conservation and utilization policy enactment and implementation.

She is accompanied by various government officials and MCAs who are members of the departmental committee on water.

She said that Taita Taveta has since banned commercial sand harvesting and wishes to borrow from Makueni experience to implement the ban. Makueni banned sand harvesting in 2013.

Makueni deputy governor Adelina Mwau who received the team noted that there was need for the creation of an economic bloc that constitutes Taita Taveta, Makueni, Machakos, Kajiado and Kitui counties who would stand up and fight illegal sand harvesting jointly.

“Illegal sand harvesting has been a nightmare to us and that is the reason governor Prof Kivutha Kibwana and I decided to ban the activity in 2013.Although we have had challenges our strategy of coming up with sand regulations has curbed the menace,” Mwau said

Prof Kibwana who also met members of the delegation noted that the illegal business had attracted social problems in the community like drug abuse, prostitution among others before he decided to ban sand scooping.

The governor said that the move was driven by the motivation to protect the sources of water as many of the rivers had been depleted.

‘’We were pushed by the urge to save our rivers, the youth who were practicing the illegal sand business and more so moving towards sustainable sand harvesting, “said Prof Kibwana.

He said that counties must aspire to work together with the county assemblies for development progress.

100 young people graduate in “Man Enough” program

Over 100 youth on Friday graduated from a youth empowerment training program dubbed “Man Enough” courtesy of partnership between the county government of Makueni and Transform Nations.

The initiative sought to equip the young men with life skills and prepare them as leaders in the family, the church and the community for national transformation through personal change.

Makueni governor Prof Kivutha Kibwana who officiated in the graduation ceremony at ATC, Kwa Kathoka challenged the youth to implement the skills they had acquired during the three weeks training saying that transformation of a nation starts with change of an individual.

“I urge you to implement what you have gained from this training and let the change be real. A community transforms itself when all its people are transformed,” Prof Kibwana said.

He further urged the youth to be agents of change in the society saying that they are the mustard seeds of transformation in the county and the nation at large.

Pastor Simon Mbevi, the founder of Transform Nations lauded the county for rolling out such a life transforming initiative saying that it was the first county to implement such a program.

“I would like to appreciate Makueni for being the first county to roll out this kind of a program and also thank the governor for the passion that he has for the young people of this county,” Pastor Mbevi stated.

Currently the county government, as a way of empowering the youth, is facilitating a youth driven initiative dubbed M-YES, a program that provides a platform for them to solve issues affecting their lives.

Other county officials who graced the ceremony included the acting executive committee member for Youth, Gender, Sports, Culture and Social Services Dr Naomi Makau and the department’s chief officer Jonah Kyathe.

Five of 21 Suspects Linked to The Defilement Case of A 15-Year Old Pupil Transferred to Different Law Courts

Kilungu law courts senior resident magistrate Charles Mayamba has this morning referred five of the 21 suspects who allegedly defiled a 15-year-old pupil in Ilima Ward to different law courts within Makueni County.

Mathew Mumbu, a primary school teacher will on 24th of July 2018 be arraigned in Makindu law courts for the mention while Paul Musau, will have his case mentioned on 26th of this month at Tawa law courts.
Mayamba reported that his decision was arrived at from his previous ruling on the same case where he convicted a man for a life sentence.

‘’It would be detrimental and against the tenets of Justice for me to continue with these cases owing to documented opinion in my judgement in the other cases’’ he said.

Last month the magistrate also convicted a 30-year-old for 80 years in prison for defiling his five-year-old daughter.

Thirteen other suspects accused of defiling the class six pupil on different dates between February and May are still at large and the police are looking for them.
Fida Kenya sent two lawyers to give legal support to the complainant’s case.

Deputy governor Adelina Mwau who has been following the case keenly sat through the proceedings and expressed her satisfaction in the way the case is being handled.

She said that in the past, for years such cases were catching dust under magistrates’ watch while perpetrators roomed free.

‘’We have lost evidence in many cases without proper explanation but we are now registering our satisfaction in the way defilement cases are being handled in Makueni,” Mwau noted.