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Commission on Revenue Allocation holds a meeting with governor Mutula while on devolution impact assessment tour

The Commission on Revenue Allocation, CRA, which is assessing the impact of devolution to service delivery since inception of devolution across the 47 counties has today morning held a meeting with H.E Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jr .
The Commission which has been in Makueni county in the last 3 days has visited various projects fully funded by the county government across subcounties to determine the extent service delivery has impacted the citizens in the County.
The team led by Commissioner Hadija Juma and the CEO James Katule held wide discussions with the Governor, CECs to discuss the impact across education, health, urban planning, roads, agriculture and water.

Commemorating World Environment Day

Deputy Governor Lucy Mulili on Monday led Makueni residents in marking the World Environment Day at Lukenya College Emali, with a call to invest in plastic waste recycling to curb plastic pollution.
Mulili said the County Government of Makueni in collaboration with NEMA has made efforts to enforce the ban on supply and use of Single Use plastic bags.
Through the department of Lands, Urban Planning and Environment, the county government has also upscaled environmental awareness on plastic pollution solutions and enhancing environmental sanitation in all the towns and Market’s, Mulili said.
 
 
 

Co-operative Bank seeks Makueni Partnership in Support of Devolution

The Co-operative Bank of Kenya wants to support devolution locally by supporting Makueni towards realizing its general development agenda to the residents.

This was disclosed by the Bank’s Head of Government and Public Sector Banking Silvance Nono on Tuesday when he led a team of representatives from the bank for a breakfast meeting with Governor Kivutha Kibwana to discuss possible areas of partnership.

According to Nono, the bank fits into the key aspirations of Makueni county in the following areas;

Agriculture and Food Security; to provide wide range agribusiness support for major valued horticultural crops in the county;

Water and Irrigation; to support the various initiatives for water harvesting as well as revenue collection for Wote Water and Sewerage Company;

Youth and women support; to provide banking solutions geared towards economic empowerment;

Quality and Accessible Health services; to provide revenue collection solutions for the county’s health facilities;

Quality Education; through provision of cash management services for the ECDE centers and TVETs; and

Economic Empowerment; through integration of co-operatives to encourage cohesion and self-reliance through pooled savings and training on financial awareness through the Co-op Bank Consultancy arm.

The Bank is supporting the county in the scholarships program and has so far sponsored 30 bright students from needy backgrounds in the County.

A technical team drawn from the parties will meet next week to finalise on the specific joint framework of working together.

CLIMATE CHANGE STEERING COMMITTEE INDUCTED ON RESOURCE MOBILIZATION

The newly appointed Makueni County Climate Change Steering Committee has completed a two-day induction on climate change management.

The induction, conducted by officers from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry- Directorate of Climate Change and County Government, focused on policy frameworks, climate change financing mechanisms, and the different stakeholders in the national and international climate change space. The committee also learned about developing simplified climate change resilience initiatives that wananchi can identify with.

Additionally, the committee was briefed on the five-year Makueni County Climate Change Action Plan (2023-2027), which will guide fundraising for climate action.

The committee now faces the crucial task of developing bankable climate change financing proposals and mobilizing resources to finance locally-led climate actions in the county.

Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Project

Makueni County is the first within the region to pass regulations on Climate Change. It has partnered with: UKAID, Ada Consortium, Christian Aid and Anglican Development Services Eastern (ADSE). As a result, the County has been at a position of accessing 50M seed money for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience.

RELATED >> MAKUENI COUNTY CLIMATE CHANGE REGULATIONS, 2015

Adaptation Consortium which is one of its partners through funding from DFID  supports County Governments in Kitui, Makueni, Wajir , Garrissa and Isiolo to mainstream Climate adaptation into planning and budgeting at the county level and set up mechanisms to access climate finance (from global, national and private sources) for adaptation prioritized by local communities. . The Government of Makueni County has made progress on the same by allocating 1% of its total development budgetary cost on Climate Change.  This will be effective by mainstreaming County Climate Change Fund (CCCF) Regulations into the County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP).

Christian Aid (Adaptation Consortium member) in  partnership with Anglican Development Services Eastern , is showing that local Climate adaptation planning ,supported by devolved funds managed by the County authorities , and informed by enhanced Climate Information Services (CIS),can render significant benefits for people in poor and marginalized households.

Makueni County CCCF Regulation development

The process began in January 2015 when a team of six from Makueni County participated in a County Climate Change Fund (CCCF) development workshop in Nairobi.

These included:

  • County Executive Member of Water, Irrigation & Environment
  • Executive Committee Member of Finance & Socio-economic Planning
  • Three members of the County Assembly
  • 1 Officer from the Department of Water, Irrigation & Environment

The above team drafted the first document which was presented to the County Cabinet meeting in February, 2015.

The document was presented to the County Assembly and amendments done and passed in September, 2015

Ward Selection Criteria

From meetings held with various stakeholders in Makueni County, the following items were suggested as possible selection criterion for the 10 out of 40 wards to be covered by the project;

  • Consideration of the agro-ecological zones of the wards
  • The poverty index of the wards
  • The livelihood zones and existing coping strategies (including aspects such as charcoal burning as a livelihood option)
  • The vulnerability index and context of the wards towards natural hazards and disasters (directly linked to aspects of climate change)
  • The ease (or lack of) access to information including climate information; phone network coverage
  • Regional representation (wards to cover worst hit regions) The closeness of the selected wards to enhance impact and change in a systematic and structured way
  • The number of players and type of interventions being undertaken in the county, more so the interrelationship with climate resilience work
  • The climate risks that exist in the various wards and coping to the same
  • Use of Climate information services in programming by existing CSO’s, NGO’s and government

The six pilot wards for the implementation of the Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience projects entail:   Mtito Andei, Nguu Masumba, Kilungu, Mbitini, Kithungo Kitundo and Kiima Kiu Kalanzoni Wards respectively.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS (SUMMARY)

Makueni County has made significant strides towards.

  1. Selection of the six wards for implementation of the Climate Change Adaptation and resilience projects
  2. Conducting the Participatory Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (PVCA) exercises.
  3. Establishment of the Makueni County Climate Change Funds Regulation,2015
  4. Launch of the Makueni County Climate Change Fund Regulations, 2015 Press Release conference.
  5. Setting up of the structures on Climate Change.
  6. Capacity building of the members to the governance structures on Climate Change.
  7. Commissioning/Operationalization of the governance structures on Climate Change by H.E the Governor of Makueni County Professor Kivutha Kibwana.
  8. Development of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Makueni County and Anglican Development Services Eastern (ADSE) / Christian Aid.
  9. Development of a Makueni County Climate Information Service (CIS) Plan.
  10. Training of the 841 County Information Services (CIS) intermediaries.
  11. Review of the proposals submitted by the Ward County Climate Change Planning Committee (WCCCPC).
  12. Pre-visit of the proposed sites by the Ward County Climate Change Planning Committee (WCCCPC)  .
  13. Approval of the proposals by the County Climate Change Planning Committee
  14. Survey and design of the proposed sites for the implementation of the projects.

DOWNLOAD THE CLIMATE CHANGE REGULATIONS.

Clean Water for Wote

Wote town is now almost water secure after the commissioning of two water treatment plants for the town, one constructed by the Government of Makueni County and the other by the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS).

The two plants, commissioned on Wednesday  by Governor Kivutha Kibwana and Kenya Red Cross Society Secretary General Abbas Gullet, have an output capacity of 90 cubic meters of water per hour, but with an installed pumping capacity of 70 cubic meters per hour.

Water executive committee member Robert Kisyula has said the installation will be able to pump for 20 hours a day, guaranteeing Wote residents 1,400 cubic meters of clean water.

With Mwaani bore hole producing 400 cubic meters per day, the total water supply to Wote town is currently 1,800 cubic meters, he says.

Mr. Gullet has announced that the Kenya Red Cross Society will donate its plant to the county government even though it was supposed to be a temporary measure to address the water crisis which hit Wote town after breaching of Kamunyolo dam and collapse of the Kaiti sump roof slab.

Governor Kibwana said his administrastion has besides the above projects put in place other short term and long term measures to ensure sustained supply of sufficient and potable water for Wote town in line with the county’s Vision 2025 and CIDP 2018-2022.

The short term measures include repair and reconstruction of Kaiti sand dam with collection galleries and increasing height of the weir by one meter. This, he said, will give more than 1400m³/day.

Other measures include piping water from Kitikyumu borehole (with a yield of 20M³/hr) to Makueni boys tanks and distributed to wote town. This source is expected to inject 400m³/day into the supply network. The project shall be implemented within 30 days from commencement.

The long-term measures according to Governor Kibwana include:  Completion of Kaiti/Kamunyii water project which is a sump funded by the national government through TANATHI. This is expected to produce at least 800m³ per day.

Reconstruction of Kamunyolo earth dam plus the treatment works and extra clear water tank of 400m³.

Construction of Kiia Nzou mega dam along Kaiti river in Kee Ward, which will be expected to produce over 2,000M³/day and flow by gravity to Wote town. Design and fundraising for the same is being done jointly with Kenya Red Cross Society with a proposed budget of Ksh1.0B. The same dam will also provide water for the four Wards of Kaiti Subcounty namely Kee, Ilima, Kilungu and Ukia.

The Thwake multipurpose dam once constructed is expected to supply more than 2000M³/day of water per day to Wote town.

Governor Kibwana said supply to Wote town and its environs will hit close to 7000M3/day, which will be able to meet the projected growth and water demand by 2025 and beyond once all these projects are up and running.

CLEAN WATER AND CLIMATE RESILIENCE BRING NEW HOPE TO MUKAANGE, MASONGALENI WARD

After years of enduring severe water scarcity—trekking over 7 km to the nearest water point—residents of Mukaange location, Masongaleni Ward, finally have reason to smile.

Once forced to drink salty borehole water, and contaminated water from River Athi, the community now enjoys safe, purified water thanks to a reverse osmosis plant that removes salinity and impurities.

Muliluni-Kiambani Water and Livelihood Enhancement project, implemented under the Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) program, has: eliminated long treks for water, reduced crocodile attacks along River Athi, revived honey production through a 50-hive apiary project at Muliluni community forest. A Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) has also enhanced restoration of the community forest.

This project highlights Makueni County’s and Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jr commitment to building climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods.

CJ Maraga unveils new Makindu Court Block

Chief Justice David Maraga on Thursday unveiled a newly build Court block at Makindu to enhance access to judicial services.

Maraga promised to post a new magistrate to the court station to expedite cases before the court especially those touching on land cases which are overwhelming.

The CJ was joined by governor Kivutha Kibwana, MPs Patrick Musimba (Kibwezi West), Daniel Maanzo (Makueni) and County MP Rose Museo among other Judicial services.

Maraga said the Judiciary is working hard to devolve as many courts as possible. In Makueni alone, he said Tawa Law Courts building is 99 percent complete while Makueni High Court building is 30 percent complete.

The new Makindu Law Courts block

Governor Kibwana urged the Courts to expedite resolution of the numerous land, environmental and sexual offences cases that are so prevalent across the county.

He also called for a review of the current procurement law which makes purchases by government and its agencies so expensive in relation to prevailing market prices.

  • January 31, 2019 in News

Chyulu Valley Borehole Project Commissioning


Governor Kivutha Kibwana and young Brian Mutiso gulp handfuls of water from Chyulu valley borehole project during its commissioning on Friday 16th March 2018.
The project, developed in partnership with Kenya Integrated Water, Sanitation and Hygiene project (KIWASH) is set to benefit 11,000 residents of Mukanda, Migingo, Mtito Andei, Mbukoni and Nthongoni within Ivingoni/Nzambani and Mtito Andei wards, Kibwezi East Sub county.
  • March 16, 2018 in News