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Hon. Mr Speaker Sir,

Honourable Members of the County Assembly,

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great honour to give my maiden address to this honourable house as we officially open our county assembly. I congratulate you all for being part of this historic moment.

 

Mr Speaker sir, I first wish to congratulate the honorable members of this house for their election to the second County Assembly of Nandi. Your election reflected the huge trust the people of Nandi have in your leadership capabilities.

In particular, I wish to thank the people of Nandi for electing 6 women as MCAs down from none in the last county assembly.

 

Nandi county now prides itself as having elected the youngest female MCA, youngest Senator, youngest Governor and now recently the youngest Speaker of this Assembly. This is clear testimony of our people’s strong believe in the capacity of our youth.

 

From my part, I want to be remembered not just as the youngest Governor but has having lead a team that transformed our county for the good of our generation and those to come. The Nandi people have entrusted in us collectively the responsibility of midwifing our county’s transformation. I invite you to partner with us in this transformational agenda.

 

Mr Speaker sir,

The devolved government ushered in  through the Promulgation of The  Constitution of Kenya 2010, is primarily geared towards involving the people in governance and  allowing  for better supervision  and implementaion of policies at the grass root level.

 

Its overarching goal is to ensure services are brought closer to the ‘Mwananchi’. This was also meant to end bad governance and  marginalization. Devolution brought back the hopes of many local communities who saw it as an opportunity to transform their lives at the grassroots.

 

Mr Speaker sir,

I wish to appreciate the outgoing County Assembly Members for the service they rendered to our county. We thank them and wish them well in their future endevours. However, we still have a huge task ahead in order to meet our people’s expectations.

 

I took the Governor’s Oath of Office and swore to faithfully and impartially serve the  people of Nandi. Under my watch, I shall  ensure that the true  spirit of devolution which is to give the people power to identify local priorities and invest in projects that will transform their lives is realized.

 

Mr Speaker sir,

My manifesto had a number of priority areas, which i intend to focus on.

 

Under the Health sector.

My vision is to prioritize provision of medical care in all our health facilities. I pledge to turn around the health sector so that every person living in Nandi County, starting with myself the Governor, will have no reason to  seek medical care outside the county.

 

We will ensure all our health facilities have the requisite medical supplies. The perenial shortage of drugs and medical supplies in our county shall be a thing of the past. I am happy to report that when I assumed office last month, our county had gone without medical supplies for seven months.

 

Today, our health facilities from the Kapsabet County Referal Hospital down to all our dispensaries across the county have adequate medical supplies. I now ask you as the people’s representatives to help us ensure that the health facilities utilize the supplies prudently.

Our government will also identify and develop a health centre of excellence in every ward. This will ensure that all the required medical facilities are availed.

 

Mr. Speaker sir,

Our health facilities suffer from inadequate personell especially the nurses. The current strike by the nurses union has been declared illegal by the courts.

In  other counties,  nurses are back to work. The Council of Governors gave a notice to all striking nurses to return to work by 8^th September, 2017 failure to which counties would have no other option but to dismiss them summarily for desertion of duty as their strike is not protected.

 

We are in the process of compiling data in order to establish how many nurses are back at work and will proceed forthwith to engage nurses on contract basis to replace those who deserted duty. We ask the house, in particular the health committee once formed, to help in dealing with this crisis.

 

Our government will also run a massive program to enrole our residents into National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF). This will save our citizens alot of cash that is currently spent in paying medical bills and this amount will be directed to other development priorities.

 

We are also developing a county health bill to be tabled before this house; the bill seeks to comprehensively provide a legal framework for the management of the health sector in our county. I ask the assembly to prioritise this bill once tabled in the house.

 

 

Mr Speaker Sir,

Agriculture is one of our key economic activities as a county. Our government will focus on promotion of value  addition of our agricultural produce and invest more resources in agri-business so that  agriculture becomes a competitive venture that even our youth can invest in and create wealth.

To achieve this we shall undertake the following;

1. Organize our farmers into co-operative societies and revive dormant ones in order for the County Government to facilitate and support the sector. I will set up a specific department of co-operative development in our county to champion and spearehead this agenda.
2. Our government will support and expand the existing National Government farm input subsidy programs to cover many other areas and crops currently not covered. This will include subsidized Artificial Insemination services to our dairy farmers.
3. We shall introduce new farming technologies that are youth friendly so as to entice many of our youth to join farming. This will include smart farming where information communication and technology is incorporated.
4. The farmers cooperative societies will be supported to pool their resources in order to set up value addition chains.

 

Mr Speaker Sir,

Under the Sports Department, our county prides itself as A Source of Champions. Our government will undertake the following so as to realize our full sports potential.

1. Negotiate with the National Government to take over and complete the construction of the ultra modern Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Kapsabet. This will ensure we have a premium stadium in our county in order to attract hosting opportunities for local and international sporting events.
2. Establish a residential sports academy and training camp in the county. This will give the opportunity to young and talented youth to identify and nature their great sporting potential.
3. Sponsor various county sporting competitions in different fields in order to give chances to the young people to build and enhance their sporting competitiveness.
4. Ensure the completion of Nandi Hills stadium.

The County Executive will be presenting a County Sports and Management Bill in order to provide the enabling legal infrustructure to nature and support sports in the county.

 

 

Mr Speaker Sir,

In the roads sector, our government will do everything to ensure our road network is improved. To achieve this, we will undertake the following;

1. Work with National Government in the tarmarking of new roads and maintenance of existing road networks in the county. We will follow up and effectively supervise contractors already awarded tenders for the construction of new roads or maitenance of existing ones in order to ensure that quality work is done and within the stipulated time.
2. Acquire road works machinery through county funding and external funding including taking up a loan facility for the same.
3. Establish county owned and certified murram quarries across the county so as to ensure that only certified materials are used on our roads. This will ensure that our roads once made are able to last much longer than is the case currently.
4. Set up a roads inspection unit that will ensure all road works are inspected and certified as done to the required standards using the right materials. This will ensure effective and prudent use of public funds in the sector.

 

 

 

 

 

Mr Speaker Sir and Honourable Members,

The state of unemployentment among the youth in our county is a time bomb. This must be radically addressed through a number of initiatives. Our government shall;

1. Set up ICT hubs across the county in order to provide the young people with business and online job opportunities.
2. Establish a state of the art modern multimedia studio for recording and shooting videos and films within our county. This will support young and talented youth to be able to identify, nature and refine artistic and creative talents in society.
3. Work with other stateholders in the sector to build and enhance the capacity of our youth to take advantage of all the national and county governments opportunities targeted at them.
4. Provide Local Purchase Order (LPO) financing for youth to be able to take advantage of the various massive opportunities targeted towards the youth.
5. Open up employment opportunities to our young people in the county. The usual mandatory 5 year experience requirement that has been used in past to the disadvantage of the young people will not be applied in Nandi. Youth must be given the opportunity to work, learn and gain experience. Our government shall give greater chances to fresh graduates with the requisite academic qualifications and passion to work for the transformation of our county. In any case, the so called ‘experience’ is in many cases is an accumulation of the old age public service habits that are no longer applicable in our current times. Innovation and creativity must be encouraged in order to effectively transform the delivery of services to our resident. This can better be done by young fresh workers in nour counties.

 

Mr Speaker Sir and Honourable Members,

In education, the County Government will work closely with the County Education Board(CEB) to carry out the relevant reforms in the education sector. This partnership with CEB is crucial because matters education cut across the two levels of government. In particular our county shall do the following;

1. Awarding bursary to needy and deserving children in transparent and fair manner.
2. Employ on better terms more ECDE teachers across the county.
3. Construct more child friendly ECDE classrooms in our schools.
4. Support school mentorship programs in our schools.
5. Work with the National Government to continue improving the infrastructural development in our schools.

 

Mr Speaker Sir and Honourable Members,

Our government is commited towards providing clean, safe and adequate water to our residents. To achieve this, we will undertake the following;

1. Carry out an audit of the existing and stalled water projects to establish their viability, capacity and level of completion. This will enable the county to invest and complete the viable projects.
2. The county will also procure water drilling machines and solar powered water pumps in order to carry out massive drilling of boreholes across the county where bore holes are suitable.
3. We will engage with the National Government to expedite the implementation of the Keben water dam and the Nandi Hills water and sewerage system. These two projects once completed shall cover the beter part of Nandi Hills and Kapsabet areas.
4. We will also support small community water projects across the county as and when the communities identify them.

 

Mr Speaker Sir and Honorable Members,

We cannot  succeed on our own. I am inviting investors  to work with us  in agro-processing, setting up of industrial parks that will create jobs for our young people. We welcome business partners who will put up innovation hubs and mentor our young entrepreneurs.

To midwife and develop these investment opportunities in our county, I will be unveiling Nandi County Investments Board in the next two weeks. We will also sponsor the Nandi County Investments Promotions Bill before the county assembly. This will provide a legal framework to anchor all these investment initiatives.

 

Mr Speaker Sir and Honourable Members,

The law provides that the County Intergrated Development Plan(CIDP) shall be developed every five years. This is such an important document that will outline our development agenda for the next five years. We have initiated the process and roadmap towards a new CIDP.

 

I urge all of us to actively participate in this process at the community level, much earlier before it comes to the county assembly for consideration and approval. I propose that the relevant committtee of this house once formed will work with us closely through the entire process.

 

Mr Speaker Sir and Honourable Members,

The assembly will play its other key role of vetting and approving appointments of key oficers into the County Executive and other organs of our government. I call upon this house to carry out this responsibility with great commitment and diligence. This will ensure we have suitable and competent people to help us implement our transformation agenda in the county.

 

The assembly also undertakes oversight over the County Executive. I call upon this house to carry out its oversight role with objectivity, commitment and zeal so as to ensure the public have value for their cash. Under my administration, every coin must count.

 

Mr Speaker Sir and Honourable Members,

Since my coming into office, I have made a number of changes to address the challenges facing our county. They include the following;

1. I have engaged the office of Auditor General to carry out a special audit of our county to establish the actual financial and fiscal status of the county. The audit will also recommend the necessary mechanisms and system changes that will have to be put in place in order to curb the runaway curruption that has characterised our county in the past. The findings of this audit once completed,shall be made available to this house.
2. I have also made several changes at the top level within the finance and health sector. This is meant to provide a good environment for the ongoing audit process.
3. I have set up a taskforce to establish the genuine pending bills for the county. When I took over, the amount of pending bills that the county is required to pay is enomous. This process will ensure that only the genuine and justified bills are paid by our government. I call upon any person or entity claiming to be owed money by our county to present their claims before the taskforce for verification. The County Government will only pay the verified debts.
4. I have also set up a task force to carry out a human resource audit especially for the casual workers in the county. This is meant to establish the exact number of our casual staff, the appropriateness of their placement in terms of qualification and departments, ascertain their rightful pay and transition them into contract employment for the deserving cases. This process will also help weed out many of the ghost workers in our payroll. I therefore, ask all the casual workers in the county to submit themselves to this process without fail so that the taskforce can comprehensively deal with this matter once and for all. I warn those interested in scutling the process to desist and allow the county to conclusively address this challenge. I ask this assembly to support the government in addressing the challenges that our county has faced in the past.

 

In conclusion,

Mr Speaker and Honourable Members, 15 million Kenyans went to the polls on 8th August 2017 in what has been described by many including international observers as the most peaceful, transparent and fair elections in our country’s history. It is through this election that you and myself were elected into our current positions.

 

It is unfortunate that the Supreme Court took a position that amounted to defeating the will of the 15 Million Kenyan voters on account of minor clerical mistakes by IEBC staff. Whereas we dont agree with this decision that has attempted to rewrite democratic principles upon which our constitution is founded, we will respect the rulling. I therefore, urge all of us who have been elected to hit the campaign trail and get the Jubilee government back to power.

 

Let us all mobilize our voters to come out in large numbers on the 17^th October 2017 for the Repeat of Presidential election and vote in H.E. Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta and H.E. Hon. William Ruto. This will reaffirm our commitment to democracy and that indeed it is the Kenyan voter who is Supreme.

 

Finally, today marks a new dawn for our county Assembly. Nandi is witnessing rebirth of itself. We have started moving in the right direction. My campaign commitment was ‘Tuga Tai’ and I am determined to lead from the front. I ask the people of Nandi to join us in this journey with renewed vigour and commitment. Let us transform our county together.

 

 

I Thank you

God Bless Nandi County

God Bless Kenya