It is with great pleasure that I welcome you all to our end of year thanks giving meeting for Meru County. It is prudent to note that this far God has been so faithful to us as a county hence the need to give him thanks as a team.
May I take this early opportunity to truly thank you for finding time to join us.
The county government has been in operation for the last eight months and I am happy to report that we have made considerable achievements in all sectors in terms of development and service delivery.
As the year comes to a close, we thought it wise to gather all the stakeholders and make few highlights of what we have been able do and what we intend to do in the future for our people.
May I point out that running of the new government was with challenges but we are committed as a government to address them appropriately if our people have to live meaningful and fulfilling lives.
By devolving power and resources to the counties the new constitution gives impetus to the devolved units to address these challenges without bureaucratic hindrance.
As a county government we are confronting these challenges head on and have covered a lot of ground in addressing these challenges. Whereas I cannot, in a single occasion, enumerate all the plans and programs so far executed or in the process of execution, allow me to outline a few of them.
INSTITUTIONALIZATION AND PUTTING IN PLACE STRUCTURES
Carrying out Training Needs Assessment to come up with appropriate training
Staffing of key position complete and sub-county administrators deployed to various sub-counties
Digitalization and development of county website near completion
Civic education is continuous to sensitized the public on county developments
INFRASTRUCTURE AS AN ANABLER FOR SOCIAL ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION
Construction of 300km road. Agreement with Malyasian government complete
Construction of 30km bypass to eliminate traffic jam in Meru town
Paving of parking lots and walk ways in urban centres
Cleaning beautification, re-planning and lighting of our towns in preparation of 24 hour economy.
WATER, SEWERAGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Already completed preliminary mapping of our area surface water and hydrogeological investigation for ground water based on satellite imagery
Funding secured for Makutano trunk sewer line launched soon
Concrete yard for labour based production of sewerage pipes plan to start soon
Invitation for commissioning of Thuura-Giaki and Gitoro-Kambakia water project and launch of Timau water projects year next year
Phase of Nteere park launched a fortnight ago and design for Maua park in progress
Water company to manage all county owned water supply infrastructure
Saccos to be formed to run and manage community owned water projects
YOUTH AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
Talent Academy was started on 3rd December, 2013 to nurture and develop youth talents. Official launch of Meru County Youth talent Academy was done on Monday 16th December, 2013 and on 28th December, 2013 we were able to graduate the first group in Music and Dance in a colorful Gala Night ceremony that we well attended.
Institutionalization of Meru County marathon will be done on September annually
Youth Sacco with a seed capital of 1 million
Equipping of all youth polytechnics to offer technical skills
Street children initiative to rehabilitate and offer decent living for the vulnerable children
Rehabilitation of Kinoru stadium, designs ready in two weeks, 30m available, maua to follow and other subcounties later.
Revival of professional clubs in meru, some professional clubs like tusker interested.
Construction of the Baseball complex to promote baseball sports. Already provided 5m, construction starting in January.
Youth involved in road construction as an empowerment programme. Training will be done to enable youth access county contracts one 100 youth(30% procurement requirement by law
Women Sacco every sub-countyto enable women access affordable credit and institutionalize a savings culture
Recruitment of 813 ECDE teachers ( Interviews on going) and construction of 90 child friendly learning centres
HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE
To ensure county residents have access to quality health services, county has developed a five year plan and is investing Kshs.900m this financial year to improve health care
Mapping of health facilities is complete and equipping them is underway
80% of children below 5 years vaccinated
AGRICUTURE
Agriculture is the backbone of our economy
Modifying our farming methods by adopting modern technologies that is less labour intensive
Making our domestic food production more efficient through mechanization and a shift from rain fed to irrigated agriculture
Embracing Agri-business and branding of our value added products
ENHANCEMENT OF COLLETIONS AN PRUDENT MANAGEMENT OF COUNTY REVENUE
Automation of revenue collection through Point of Sale (POS) to be launched on 19th December 2013
Identification, audit and asset tagging to determine valuation rates and create database
LAND AND PHYSICAL PLANNING
Validation of County Integrate Development Plan (CIDP)
Spartial plans for Meru town is already out and planning a launch
Doing spartial plans for areas boardering Isiolo an Nanyuki and plan are underway to make spartial plans for other urban areas including Nkubu and Maua towns
Solving of land and fasttracking of title deed issuance
