Second Lady H.E Dorcas Rigathi and H.E Governor Mutula Kilonzo Junior flag off Relief Food to be distributed to residents at the risk of hunger in Kibwezi East, Kibwezi West and Makueni sub-county.
The flag off took place at Kathonzweni.
Makueni, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) implementing partners on Friday concluded a two-day joint work planning workshop aiming at ensuring no duplication of development projects in the county.
The partners’ discussion stretched into joint designing, planning, monitoring, and learning so that they don’t implement similar projects.
The process of a joint work plan is a result of an MoU that the County signed with USAID in 2020, and has since provided an avenue to jointly examine data, and evaluate past progress so as to identify priority areas for the next fiscal year.
During the workshop, the partners identified the main priority areas of the Governor’s Manifesto for inclusion in the Joint Work Planning, awaiting validation and signing off by USAID and Makueni for implementation to commence.
The workshop was facilitated by USAID Resilience Learning Activity (RLA).
Wote: October 28, 2022
Deputy governor H.E Lucy Mulili on Friday received a delegation in her office from the Kenya Informal Settlement Improvement program (KISIP) in a move to plan a roadmap to improve informal settlements within Makueni’s towns.
According to Dr. Peris Mang’ira, KISIP national coordinator, before embarking on an improvement project of the informal settlements, they will first conduct project planning and do a survey as well as aerial drone photography.
The project comes after Mjini village (Kibwezi town), Misongeni (Makindu town), and Soko-Mjinga in Emali town qualified for tenure regularization intervention under the project.
Makueni is among the counties funded by the World Bank through the state department of housing to improve their informal settlements.
The Deputy Governor noted that mushrooming of informal settlements is a hindrance to getting accurate boundaries and buffer zoning as well as land management, welcoming the KISIP team to partner with the county in the entire process.
Makueni County Government will distribute certified planting seeds and relief food worth Sh 120M to its residents, H.E Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jnr has said.
He spoke at Kathonzweni on Thursday while flagging off emergency relief food together with County Commissioner Beverly Opwora and Deputy Governor Lucy Mulili.
Governor Mutula Jnr also noted that his administration is in the process of purchasing more relief food through its emergency kitty to supplement efforts by the national government to alleviate hunger.
The Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) is seeking to partner with Makueni in a move to improve road safety measures on all roads that fall within the KeNHA purview in the county.
This was revealed today following a courtesy call by KeNHA Lower Eastern Regional Director Eng. James Kariuki to H.E Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jnr.
Eng. Kariuki said that they were embarking on various interventions towards ensuring that the roads are safer for users in Makueni.
Some of the proposed areas of collaboration include: rolling out tree-planting exercises along the roads, joint solutions regarding traffic issues caused by Matatus parking on the road shoulders, and relocation of traders spreading in road reserves across various market centers.
However, it was observed that the county government should liaise with KeNHA before allocating permits to businesses abutting roadways to ensure that the businesses are viable in view of location and safety
Sensitization of citizens on the importance of protection and preservation of the road asset was also emphasized.
Governor Mutula raised concerns about the increasing deaths of traffic hawkers operating in the towns of Salama, Emali, and Sultan-Hamud among other towns along the Northern corridor section urging KeNHA for immediate intervention to ensure the safety of the traders.
H.E Governor Mutula Kilonzo Junior has commended the progress made in Thwake Dam construction, which stands at 74 percent to date.
During a tour of the project site in the company of County Commissioner Beverly Opwora on Tuesday, Governor Mutula Jnr expressed confidence that Phase One of the project will be ready for commissioning next year as envisioned by the national Ministry of Water and Irrigation.
H.E Mutula Jnr termed the project as one of the answers to the perpetual water and food stress bedeviling Makueni County. He said the Ministry of Water and Irrigation has given him its commitment for supply of water to Kalawa Ward and Wote town.
The governor also challenged the national government to start planning for the next phases of the project, which include a 20MW hydropower plant, water supply and sanitation as well as the irrigation component.
To ensure skills transfer, the governor put up a request to the contractor for capacity building of the county government’s water personnel in mega water dams construction to scale up their prowess.
The First Lady H.E Anita Mutula today held a consultative meeting with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) corporation where they discussed possible areas of working together.
GIZ is an international organization that works with national, international, and private sector partners and concerns itself with priority areas; sustainable economic development, renewable energy, and climate change.
GIZ eyes to partner with the County through the office of the First Lady to empower women from deep within the villages.
The partnership aims at creating more consumer awareness and adoption of new friendly technologies such as improved cooking stoves for locals among others.
Anita was thrilled by the new technology saying that it will create jobs for the youth and reduce respiratory problems linked to firewood use.
On Tuesday 25th October, the Governor H.E Mutula Kilonzo Jnr held a meeting with a section of motor vehicle drivers and machine operators employed by the County Government of Makueni to gain insight into their operations and work environment.
The drivers had an opportunity to speak candidly about their challenges and more importantly their views on how their welfare can be improved through training and promotion of good performers.
The drivers agreed to ensure county assets entrusted to them by the people of Makueni are well handled and maintained for the benefit of the County.
However, the Governor warned against misuse of government vehicles and machineries.
“Recently, I made far reaching changes in the transport department which was plagued by inefficiency, high maintenance and fuel bills. I make it clear that misuse of vehicles and machinery will not be tolerated,” the Governor said.
The meeting ended on a positive note with a commitment to change.
