11/10/2022
MY ADDRESS DURING THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE THIRD COUNTY ASSEMBLY OF NANDI ON 11TH OCTOBER, 2022
SPEAKER OF THE NANDI COUNTY ASSEMBLY, HON. CHERUIYOT MELLY,
HONOURBALE MEMBERS,
MEMBERS OF THE FOURTH ESTATE,
ESTEEMED MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC,
Let me take this opportunity to thank the almighty God for the gift of life and opportunity he has given us to gather here this afternoon. I wish to congratulate our Speaker Rt. Hon. Cheruiyot Meli on your election as the third Speaker of this great 3rd County Assembly of Nandi.
My hearty congratulations also go to you Honorable Members on your election or nomination and subsequent swearing in. With that Honorable Members, the hard task of building our great county of Nandi continues. I have no doubt that we will walk together in the journey of Continuing the Transformation of our County.
Honorable Members, we had a productive five years that saw us deliver services to the people of Nandi. We equally had our fair share of unprecedented challenges ranging from delayed disbursements of equitable share of revenue, unsustainable wage bill, COVID 19 pandemic disruptions, lack of harmonious working relationship between elected leaders among others.
The challenges were overwhelming, but we pulled through working together.
The successes we had would not have been feasible without the immense support of the second county assembly of Nandi. I therefore wish my heart appreciation to the Honorable Speaker and Members of the second county assembly. I wish them God’s speed in their future endeavors.
Honorable Members, I wish to briefly highlight a few milestones we were able to achieve in our first term. These milestones form the foundation on which our collective development agenda will be anchored going forward.
UNDER HEALTH AND SANITATION
Honorable Members, as provided in the constitution, reproductive health care, emergency medical treatment, and reasonable standards of sanitation, forms part of the economic and social rights.
When I assumed office as Governor in 2017, a critical mass of Nandi residents could not access key medical services, often compelling them to seek costly alternatives.
As a priority we embarked on the following ambitious and targeted interventions;
i. We increased the budgetary allocation for healthcare from 22% to 38% of our annual budget
ii. We have renovated, constructed, equipped, operationalized and upgraded a significant number of health facilities across the county
iii. We significantly increased the number of health care providers and workers across the sector.
iv. Secured a binding engagement with healthcare workers on improvement of their terms of service and working conditions through implementation of an international exchange program, promotions, and reassignment of jobs. This has successfully averted the frequent strikes that were the norm before
v. To reduce maternal and infant mortalities, we constructed new maternity wings and upgraded the existing ones. This has significantly increased access to skilled birth attendance and reduced mortality rate from 71 per 100,000 births in 2017 to 34 per 100,000 births in 2022
vi. We increased the number of theaters in the County thus ensuring patient referrals outside the county and the cost of medical care has significantly decreased
vii. We have acquired new ambulances to address the challenges experienced in patient management and referral services
viii. We have upgraded and expanded facilities and services at Kapsabet County Referral Hospital to meet the ever increasing demands for health services by residents with establishment of an oxygen plant, a variety of diagnostic services, renal services, as well as a modern maternity with additional theatres, radiology services that include CT scan and X-Rays, endoscopy and ICU services
ix. Several standby power generators have been installed in our major health facilities to ensure uninterrupted power supply.
Honorable Members, all these strides could not have been possible without our dedicated healthcare personnel and our development partners. I wish to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to all health workers and key stakeholders for their unwavering commitment.
Honorable Members our priority programs in this term shall include and not limited to the following;
i. Increase budgetary allocation of funds towards purchasing adequate medical supplies and other necessary consumables
ii. Provide budgetary allocations for completion, equipping and operationalization of the Mother & Child Hospital in Kapsabet, new dispensaries, health centers and hospital complexes across the county
iii. Allocate funds for the purchase of an additional ambulances to enhance access to health facilities in the county
iv. There is an urgent need for additional staff and particularly specialists to enhance our capacity to provide specialized medical care
UNDER AGRICULTURE AND COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT
Honorable Members,
Over the last five years, we embarked on a plan to revolutionize the sector through the following interventions aimed at increasing agricultural productivity and value addition to empower farmers and create jobs. To achieve this, we invested on a number of interventions that include;
i. Construction of the first ever milk processing plant dubbed Nandi Cooperative Creameries (NCC) in Kabiyet which is at 80% completion
ii. Construction and equipping of milk cooling plants to support aggregation and bulking of milk in order to do bulk marketing hence increase the price for milk
iii. Established Agriculture Mechanization Services with the purchase of farm tractors with assorted implements
iv. Expanded coffee production through distribution of coffee seeds, seedlings, Eco-pulping machines and registration of new coffee cooperatives
v. Construction of a coffee milling plant at Chebonet, Tinderet sub county which is at 60% complete
vi. Enhanced diversification by providing seeds, seedlings and planting materials for high value crops including coffee, avocado, Irish potatoes, banana, macadamia among others
vii. Procured a mini-maize milling machine for farmers’ cooperative society plant in Kabisaga, which is just awaiting electrical connection by KPLC
viii. Construction and equipping of a chicken slaughterhouse with capacity to slaughter up to 500 birds per hour, in Kapsabet
ix. Enhanced access to extension services by farmers through recruiting extension service providers and acquisition of motorbikes to facilitate their mobility.
Through the same effort farmers have benefited from quality subsidized Artificial Insemination (AI)services.
x. As a vehicle of development, we embarked on aggressive initiatives to strengthen the management and governance of cooperative societies resulting in vibrant farmer organizations.
Honorable Members, we still have a lot of ground to cover in this sector. The huge potential needs to be fully exploited. I am particularly excited that the Kenya Kwanza government is committed to prioritize Agriculture through their Bottom-Up programs. To achieve this, there is need to deliberately enhance investments in value addition for our agricultural produce. In this regard, we should allocate additional resources towards.
i. Completion and operationalization of the Nandi Cooperative Creameries, Nandi Coffee Mill and the Chicken Slaughter house
ii. Support doper breeding and value addition of meat for local and export market for youth and farmers with limited access to land
iii. Enable farmers’ access to affordable feeds through bulk purchasing through cooperatives
iv. Improve farmers’ earnings through value addition and cold storage facilities
v. Ensuring access to AI services within the dairy farmer cooperative societies through facilitation of AI equipment and maximizing on the presence of semen production in the region
vi. Equipping the already constructed milk bulking facilities and operationalizing 30 cooling plants to improve milk quality and market access
vii. In Poultry, we intend to establish incubation and brooding facilities around the farmer cooperatives for bird breeding and multiplication
viii. Expanding avocado production and value addition for export
ix. Support smallholder tea farmers establish a tea specialty factory
x. Support sugarcane farmers to construct a milling factory in collaboration with investors
UNDER EDUCATION AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING
Honorable Members, Early childhood offers a critical window of opportunity to shape the trajectory of a child’s holistic development and build a foundation for their future.
It is therefore imperative that as an administration, we must deliberately strive to create a conducive environment for our children to grow and excel. More-so, research has shown that the learning conditions have a direct impact on learning outcomes in children.
To this effect, we were able to construct ECDE classrooms across the county. So far, 206 out of 240 ECDE classrooms are complete while the remaining 34 are in various stages of completion.
Over the next five years, our administration aims at constructing more ECDE classrooms in order to achieve the equity that we desire to bring all our centers to par.
ECDE teachers should be empowered, adequately recruited and properly numerated, they must be motivated, professionally qualified and supported within well resourced, efficient and effectively governed systems. In this regard, we have already commenced a process which will ensure that all ECDE teachers will progress into the scheme of service, as recommended by the council of Governors and the SRC.
Honorable Members, in line with this, my government has endeavored to fulfill this requirement by employing these measures;
i. Confirmation of 1,300 teachers to permanent and pensionable terms
ii. Recruitment of additional 450 ECDE teachers within the last five years
iii. We also entered into an agreement with Kenya Literature Bureau and other partners to offer capacity building programs to ensure our teachers remain relevant and are up to date with the current educational trends
iv. To further complement our efforts, we provided teaching aids and learning materials to our centers to guarantee quality outcomes for both our teachers and children.
Honorable Members, access to education is a fundamental right which no child should miss out on. Unfortunately, with the rise of the cost of living and the lasting effects caused by the COVID 19 pandemic, several families have found themselves unable to meet school fees obligations. To mitigate this, we were able to disburse 240 million shillings’ worth of bursary in the last five years. However, this has fallen far short of the demand occasioned by the rising number of needy students in the county. Consequently, we plan to increase the annual bursary kitty.
Honorable Members, the overseas work and study program is aimed at providing access to various educational and professional opportunities to our residents. I am glad to inform you that our partnership with institutions in Finland is well advanced and the first cohort of professional nurses will be leaving for Finland to take up work and study opportunities within this month of October. Students scheduled to pursue engineering and nursing courses are also scheduled to leave as soon as their travel arrangements are concluded.
We are working towards expanding the scope commence partnerships with institutions in Canada, Poland among others to match students with appropriate academic institutions, programs and career opportunities. I urge my fellow young people to take up these rare chances.
UNDER SPORTS, YOUTH AFFAIRS AND ARTS
Honorable Members, we are the source of champions. There is a huge untapped pool of talented youth in our county. The county has produced the highest numbers of medals for our nation in global athletic events including Olympics, International Athletic championships and major City marathons across the globe.
At this point, I join the world in congratulating our very own, Eliud Kipchoge, Amos Kipruto, Joceline Jepkosgei, Benson Kipruto, Ruth Chepngétich among tens of others who have shattered records and raised our flag high in the recently held world major marathons. Pongezi sana.
Honorable Members, we all agree that there is a need for a deliberate investment to tap into this pool of talents from as early as primary school age. Globally, Sports was adversely affected by the COVID 19 pandemic. However, we are proud of the milestones we achieved in the last five years geared towards placing our sportsmen and women, as well as our young people in gainful economic employment, empowerment programs and ensuring that they remain competitive in the international arena. This has been made possible through;
i. Construction and equipping of the first publicly owned residential Athletics Training Camp. The construction is at 90 % completion
ii. Promotion of sports as through hosting of national and regional events such the Kenya Volleyball Leagues and Tournaments, Kenya Youth Inter-County Sports, the Koitalel Samoei Half Marathon, Ndalat Gaa Cross Country, Tindiret Mountain Run among others
iii. We also established the Nandi County Youth Service that recruit and train youth to undertake tasks relating to devolved functions at the county. So far, over 700 young people have been trained and recruited into this game changing program.
To re-position our county as a true source of champions, I seek your support in;
i. Establishing talent and sports academies in the Sub Counties including vocational training facilities
ii. Completing, equipping and operationalizing Kipchoge Keino stadium in Kapsabet, Nandi Hills stadium and the Residential Sports Training camp.
We have also secured commitment to funding the completion and expansion of our stadiums by national government
iii. Distributing sporting equipment to youth across the County
iv. Continuously engaging with institutions to expand and leverage on the existing athletic scholarships
v. Expanding and training the Nandi County Youth Service to be more skilled, agile and responsive to the many societal challenges we seek to address.
UNDER TRADE, INVESTMENTS AND INDUSTRIALIZATION
Honorable Members, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises play a critical role in the livelihoods of most Kenyans. According to Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis, MSMEs contribute to over 90% of Kenya’s total labour force and if adequately empowered, will contribute significantly to poverty reduction and economic development.
It is my desire to ensure these enterprises receive adequate funding, secure premises, and an enabling environment to provide citizens with their services. For us to reap maximum gain from the upcoming Hustler Fund, it is imperative that deliberate steps are taken to ensure Women, Youth and Persons Living with Disabilities are encouraged to register into SACCOs and associations. This is no doubt in keeping with the bottom-up economic model which, as clearly defined by H.E The President, is anchored on a programme that promotes investment and financial instruments targeting ordinary Kenyans.
Honorable Members, in the last five years, our administration has been able to gain significant strides towards the promotion of MSMEs through several interventions aimed at creating jobs for our youth, including;
i. Establishment of the first Nandi Textiles Unit which is at 90% completion
ii. Establishment and operationalization of fresh produce and open-air markets
iii. Constructing Boda-boda shades across the county
Honorable Members, going forward we are going to review and rationalize all business licenses, taxes and other charges as well as enact laws to reduce the administrative burden on tax and regulatory compliance. We will also endeavor in partnerships with private sector and the national government to establish Industrial Parks and Business Parks within the county.
UNDER ADMINISTRATION, PUBLIC SERVICE AND e - GOVERNMENT
Honorable Members, efficient and effective service delivery is pegged on the performance of our public service. The success of my administration in the past five years gravitates on the dedication, commitment and sense of duty demonstrated by the public service. Our administration has employed various performance management strategies to boost the delivery of services in this key sector.
Honorable Members, today I am proud of the milestones that we have been able to achieve even though more still needs to be done. Essentially, during the last five years, the County Government of Nandi was ranked position two in the Open Government Partnership (OGP), Global Innovations Awards. Our Toll Free Call Centre which has acted as a hub for government information services, was lauded by OGP as the best effort at open governance.
Honorable Members, I intend to have a functional Public Service System that is focused on service delivery and guided by the need to create a good work-ethics culture that focuses on need for productivity and value for money.
UNDER LANDS, ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Honorable Members, despite the existing judicial mechanisms for dispute resolution, land disputes continue to exist between communities, Multi Nationals and absentee land lords. Thus the quest for justice continues for Nandi squatters and forest evictees involved in land disputes across the county.
It is for these reasons that our administration engaged a whole government approach towards the resolution of existing disputes on Historical Land Injustices. I took a personal initiative to facilitate a robust discussion in pursuit for all avenues to resolve lingering historical land issues.
We presented our historical land injustices claims to the National Land Commission for documentation, presentation and prosecution.
Honorable Members, I am glad to report to this honorable house as follows;
i. Over 40 claims for redress were lodged, admitted and considered by the National Land Commission
ii. Some of these claims have been heard and determined by the commission as gazetted on 1st of March, 2019
iii. Several claims are ongoing and await determination by the commission
iv. Matters outside the jurisdiction of the commission, have been filed, and are ongoing before various courts of law.
Honorable members, the ex*****on of favorable judgements have been delayed by aggrieved perpetrators who have since filed appeals in Appellate Courts. We remain hopeful that the NLC decisions will be upheld to ensure that we resettle squatters and or find commensurate compensations. It is our continued hope that in the days to come, the mandated institutions would move with speed to conclude these cases and offer tangible solutions to the victims of these injustices.
Honorable Members, in our efforts to restore, conserve and protect the environment, our administration has done the following:
i. Gazetted the County Environment Committee that is charged with the responsibility of managing the Environment on behalf of the County Government and enacted The Climate Change Fund Act 2021 through which the county government can leverage on to attract funding to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change
ii. The Committee through NEMA issued a number of Restoration orders aimed at rehabilitating the degraded Wetlands
iii. Planting of trees in gazetted forests and public institutions is ongoing
iv. Commit at least 2 percent of our annual development budget to fund programs and projects related to climate change as per the Climate Change Act of 2016
v. Plant over 5 Million trees in both public and private lands along the main roads for aesthetic value and increase of tree cover
Honorable Members, we have taken deliberate measures to ensure we implement water projects across the county to reach as many homesteads as possible. They include;
i. Completed and operationalized several Community Water Projects serving several households
ii. We further drilled a number of boreholes of which some are operational while others are expected to be equipped in due course
Honorable Members, to mitigate water-related challenges posed by population growth, climate change and other factors, our administration is seeking the support of this house to;
i. Increase funding to ensure an increase in the number of households connected to piped water
ii. Focus on the use of solar energy to pump water instead of electricity for sustainability and mitigation of climate change
iii. Working with the national government to implement the Keben mega dam that will sort about 70% of our county’s water needs. The Nandi Hills and Kipkaren dam water projects will also complement the county efforts.
UNDER TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Honorable Members, transport and infrastructure facilitates a wider range of social and economic interactions that would otherwise be impossible.
Our administration placed a lot of significance in improving this sector through the following;
i. Acquire tipping lorries, backhoe loaders, drum rollers, excavators and a low bed truck/lorry loader
ii. Address the gap of insufficient skilled personnel through placement of specialized drivers, plant operators, Civil Engineers, Road inspectors, Material Technician(s), Mechanical Engineer, Mechanics, Electrical Engineers, Electrical Technicians, Quantity Surveyors and Architect Technicians
iii. Constructed and operationalized a county central fuel station that has helped in prudent use of fuel.
Additionally, we acquired a fuel tanker that complements transportation and delivery of fuel during road construction and maintenance across the county.
iv. Constructed box culverts, bridges, new steel footbridges and several metres of pipe culverts across the county
v. Repossessed road reserve that had been grabbed or encroached with the help of local administration, elected ward representatives, county road surveyors among others.
Honorable Members, while our administration boasts of the milestones highlighted before, the wonderful hilly and sloppy terrains, the heavy rains witnessed in several months in the year and our fertile soils have presented us with the challenge of experiencing aggravated destruction of transport infrastructure occasioned by heavy flashfloods.
As we begin this new mandate, I rally the honorable members to support my plan to;
i. Construct more box culverts to enhance connectivity and improve accessibility.
ii. Construct more bridges and steel footbridges to increase connectivity in areas needed
iii. Improve drainage works within our roads and across streams by constructing more metres of pipe culverts
iv. Acquire additional Motor graders, excavators, and supervision/inspection vehicles.
v. In partnership with the national government, we shall seek to upgrade more gravel roads to bitumen standards, gravel earth roads, further grade roads and open up new roads across the county.
UNDER TOURISM, CULTURE AND SOCIAL WELFARE
Honorable Members, Nandi County undoubtedly has unimaginable attraction sites and an irresistible culture. Over the past five years, our administration has implemented strategies towards promoting Nandi as a tourist destination, encouraging the participation of people living with disability and protecting the progressive and positive cultural norms and traditions. This, we have done by;
i. Working with Kaburwo Council of Elders, Kokwetab Boisiek, Talai Council, Maotik and Gotab Myot to address various cultural issues in the society
ii. Procuring and distribution of various types of Assistive Devices including wheel chairs, mobility carts, crutches, white canes, hearing Aids, prosthesis limbs for assessed Persons Living with various types of disabilities across the County.
Honorable Members, our administration shall put in more effort to develop and market our tourist sites, preserve our history and cultural heritage and foster deeper social protection and promotion of welfare for those differently abled.
UNDER FINANCE AND ECONOMIC PLANNING
Honorable Members, revenue performance has been steady over the last five years.
The streams that contribute largely to the performance include Health, Single Business Permits, Parking Fees, Cess, Land rates and Market fees which account for 77.7% of the collection in the just concluded financial year.
The last five years saw a number of challenges in an attempt to increase the revenue base. Court injunctions as well as unclear cross county revenue collection mechanisms saw some revenue streams omitted from the net. There has however been a participatory process spearheaded by the Commission on Revenue Allocation that has seen the development of a Comprehensive Own Source Revenue Potential and Tax Gap. The actions arising from this comprehensive study will lead to harmonization of revenue collection across counties. Key among this are;
i. Elimination of double levies on business people doing businesses across counties
ii. Embarking on updating the valuation roll
iii. Creating more parking spaces and expanding market spaces
iv. Cleaning the land registers, among other interventions to enhance revenue and service delivery.
Honorable Members, while I have enumerated the milestones of my administration in the last five years, matched with the challenges experienced and our anticipated destinations, we have an opportunity to consider and integrate your development priorities together with those of the Kenya Kwanza administration and as we develop our 3rd Generation of the County Integrated Development Plan.
Honorable Members, as I conclude this address, our key pressing issues include the urgent need to create jobs for our youth, stabilize incomes for our farmers, increase bursary allocation, increasing demand for health services, address the unsustainable wage bill and increasing pending bills.
My administration shall put more focus on addressing the above through;
i. Completion and Operationalization of our Flagship Projects
My administration will prioritize allocation of funds for the completion and operationalization of the four flagship projects namely, the Nandi County Cooperative Creameries, Nandi County Textile Unit, Eliud Kipchoge Athletic Training Camp and the Kapsabet Mother and Child Complex. This will create direct and indirect jobs through manufacturing, value addition and service provision.
ii. Pending Bills
We are continuing our plan and strategy to completely offset both the historical and the current pending bills as a way of relieving the financial pressures and obligations currently faced by our contractors and suppliers.
While a good chunk of the bills has been settled, I commit to finalize soon.
iii. Wage Bill
Counties have been grappling with the increasing wage bills, Nandi is not an exception. I have already instituted actions targeted towards rationalization of our human resources. This will ensure we have a properly organized HR and a motivated staff while also releasing more resources to development.
iv. United Leadership
I pledge to provide stewardship among the elected leaders and rely on all your counsel for sound decision making, In me, you will find a fatherly figure, a listener, a helper and a confidant that you can rely on. I ask also that you complement and support these efforts in the spirit of facilitating and providing effective service delivery our great people.
Honorable Speaker, Honorable Members, I thank you for listening to me. God Bless you, God Bless Nandi, God Bless Kenya.
Asante Sana!
STEPHEN K. ARAAP SANG
GOVERNOR, NANDI
