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Strategic Partnerships Review

Makueni County through the Directorate of Strategic Partnerships and Intergovernmental Relations on Wednesday embarked on a 3-day workshop to engage development partners with a view of co-auditing existing collaborations and chat the way forward.

According to Strategic Partnership Director Francis Nthuku, Makueni is a home of numerous and vibrant partners and its development success story cannot be complete without mentioning partnerships.

For instance, he noted, Makueni has been able to implement major flagship projects through collaborations. Some of them include the Wote Public Green Park, the Kalamba Fruit Processing Plant reconstituting line, the Public Participation Model, and the Grain Processing Plant at Makindu.

At the end of the workshop, the partners together with the county departments will identify areas of synergy to create new partnerships and deepen existing working relations to implement more development works to benefit the residents of Makueni.

 

Rehabilitation of Wote Estates Roads Kicks off

The Department of Transport and Infrastructure in Makueni has launched a two-week Estate Roads rehabilitation program in Wote town to ease transportation and open up the areas for business opportunities.
The program entails grading, murraming and compacting of the targeted roads. By end of the two weeks, the department will have graded 29km of road network.
County Executive Committee Member for Transport Sebastian Kyoni flanked by Wote Ward MCA Felix Mateso and Wote Municipality Manager Joseph Katumo flagged off the exercise on Wednesday.
Some of the Estates targeted for opening up include Town area, Shimo, Calosci, Nguumo/Malawi, Kundakindu, Slaughter, Westlands, Kasarani and Bangladesh.
Kyoni said the county government is in talks with Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) for partnership to progressively upgrade the roads to bitumen standards.

Makueni County Marks Safer Internet Day

On the 7th February 2023, the county government through the Department of ICT, Education and Internship hosted this years’ Safer Internet day in Makueni. The two day celebration was held in collaboration with Eveminet Communication Solutions Limited, an organization that is a Safer partner with Meta, TikTok and Google in Sub Saharan Africa and operating in the Education and Technology (Ed-Tech) Industry. The theme for this year was ‘Together For a Better Internet’.
The celebrations looked at a series of Online Safety roundtable engagements aimed at showcasing Innovative and Strategic advancements towards protecting children on the online space together with creating awareness and building capacities to all the players within the ecosystem of the child.
Stakeholders from key sectors around the children ecosystem were present with representation from KESSHA, Makueni Students Association, CIC and CTTI officers, students from Wote PWD centre, Ukia,Wote, Kathonzweni CICs and participation of Makueni boys and Ukia girls high schools.

90 Needy Learners Secure County Scholarships

90 pupils from needy backgrounds who sat for their KCPE in 2022 have secured full scholarships to their secondary schools of choice thanks to the County Government of Makueni.

The 90 were selected from the 30 wards after a thorough vetting exercise by the Department of Education.

Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jnr who led the scholarships award ceremony in Wote said the county government will closely monitor the awardees’ educational progress so that non veers off the right course of the education system.

Makueni Human-Wildlife conflict claimants to receive compensation

Makueni Human-Wildlife conflict claimants to receive compensation from March, CS Malonza says
Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jnr on Friday met Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage Cabinet Secretary Peninah Malonza to fast track pending compensation claims on human-wildlife conflict cases in Makueni.
The CS disclosed that plans are underway to settle the backlog of claims received by June 2022. She said: “We will pay the pending claims. I have already approved the budget and by march we should be starting the payments to claimants of loss of live and property cases.”
However, the Tourism CS decried of limited resources but her ministry is pushing for establishment of conservation fund as one of the ways of supplementing budget from the exchequer. Besides settling of the unpaid claims, Malonza said they were exploring ways to end human-wildlife conflict.
Malonza further announced that the government has already committed funds to electric fence the remaining section of Kitui Game Reserve bordering Masongaleni at River Athi. “I am happy that Makueni is already doing 93 Kilometres. We commit to do the remaining section that remains exposed at the kitui Game reserve,” said Malonza.
Governor Mutula sought for a collaboration with the ministry to assist the county in areas of tourism promotion, wildlife conservation and culture. Technical officers from the two teams are working together to establish specific areas of partnership ahead of official signing of their engagement.

Getting Health Priorities Right

Deputy Governor Lucy Mulili on Friday presided over the Annual Performance and Mid -Year Health Services implementation Review Workshop by the top county medical cadre in Mombasa.
The workshop brought together different health sector unit heads and the sub-county health teams, directors and the executive committee member to draw a roadmap of accelerating roll out of transformative health programs in line with Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jnr’s vision.
The workshop sought to among others: identify the 24-hour health services provision facilities at the ward level; review past performances, identify inherent gaps and strengths in service delivery as well as setting priorities for the 2023/2024 Financial Year.
Mulili said the current Makueni administration is keen on delivering the best quality attainable healthcare to the residents of Makueni using the available resources.
 
 

Makueni Tech and Innovation hub wins the innovation hub of the year award

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On the 8th December 2022 Makueni Tech and Innovation hub a project by the County Government, was awarded the National Innovation Award in the category county government innovation hub of the year for the initiative to directly support innovators.

Makueni Tech and Innovation Hub aims to provide an open space for entrepreneurs and programmers to access. It also runs periodical innovation challenges tied closely with addressing local and global challenges. The hub has reached over 1000 through its initiatives geared toward building skills through and not limited to small scale manufacturing.

Some of the initiatives the hub has run in collaboration with its partners include:

  • Running of two Innovation challenges that have allowed cross learning with the innovation hubs beyond the county thus serving as a platform for county youth to think solutions for local problems and promotion of technology based ideas
  • Providing mentorship and training by reaching the unreached through two editions of the Kids tech bootcamps and Developers bootcamp with focus on encouraging women and young girls from highschools
  • Hosted the health innovation fair that would support the department of health realize solutions geared to prioritise and address its needs
  • Ran and hosted the regional innovation week a first for the region
  • Upskilling in small scale manufacturing through Emerging tech-3D printing, NoCode
  • Fostering an entrepreneurial spirit amongst youth in areas of business through Peperusha Maisha and in collaboration with local member hub for supporting women and enabling them digitally.
  • Support with funding to the top 10 awardees from the two innovation challenges
  • Sensitized the community on the start up bill
  • Working with Eco-system stakeholders to support the community such us Konza Technopolis, Communications Authority, University of Central Missouri, Association of Countrywide Innovation Hubs, IBM, Cisco, Google, Insight Health Advisors, KIPI and YASA

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Makueni County Farmer Seed Multiplication Program

Ms Joyce Mutua , CECM Agriculture, irrigation, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperative Development joined members of Ngamiteka CBO in Kibwezi West, Nguumo ward for the 1st  inspection of green gram community seed production.The certified green gram seed requirement for Makueni county stand at 903,352 kg against a supply of 361,340.8kg, by among others KALRO Katumani, Simlaw seeds ltd and dryland seeds. The low access to certified seeds causes farmers to plant own seed (uncertified) totaling to 542,011.2kg P.A hence poor production and increased grain market deficits.

To address the gap, ASDSP II funded an innovation proposal by Ngamiteka CBO to produce green gram community seed.  Makueni County with support from ASDSP II program partnered with Egerton University to provide technical support to Ngamiteka CBO to produce KS20 green gram seed variety. A total of 50 farmers each with 5 acres (a total 250acres) were identified in 16 ward and were supported with ripping services, training on seed production, provided with basic seeds, fertilizer, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, jute bags and inspection services.  Seed inspector from Egerton University visiting Ngamiteka CBO members for the 1st inspection of crop establishment. The 2nd inspection scheduled at mid-January 2023, followed by harvesting and storage of planting seeds in jute bags. The farmers are expected to produce 100 metric tons of KS20 green gram seed variety by February 2023.

 

Dr. Tuiyot, Seed Inspector conducting 1st crop inspection