ADDRESS BY H.E. KIRAITU MURUNGI, GOVERNOR, MERU COUNTY ON THE OCCASION OF THE STATE OF THE COUNTY ADDRESS ON WEDNESDAY 31^ST JULY 2019 AT THE MERU COUNTY ASSEMBLY CHAMBER.

Mr. Speaker Sir., let me begin by thanking you most sincerely for your warm welcome, and allowing me give my State of the County address to this August House, pursuant to section 30 (2) (k) of the County Governments Act, 2012 and Standing Order No. 22 of the County Assembly of Meru Standing Orders. It is a very rare honour and privilege to be here. I want to take this opportunity to thank all Honourable Members for turning out in large numbers; and for the tremendous support that they have given to my Government and its programs since we assumed office almost two years ago.

It is my hope and prayer that this warm and cordial relationship will continue as we discharge our respective mandates, in Making Meru Great.

With your permission, Mr. Speaker Sir., and in accordance with the protocol of this House, allow me to recognize my able Deputy Governor, Hon. Titus Ntuchiu, the County Executive Committee Members, County Government Officers, the media fraternity, the distinguished guests seated in the gallery, and all the people of Meru County who will be watching and listening to me live from various radio and TV stations.

Almost two years ago, the people of Meru County overwhelmingly voted for me to become their Governor. I promised the Meru people that as their Governor, I shall never let them down. As I have said on many occasions that my dream is to make Meru Great. We want Meru County to be one of the most successful and prosperous counties in Kenya. I cannot achieve this dream alone. I need the support of each and every one of you.

I want to thank my CEC members and County staff who are working hard to make this dream a reality. My speech is titled: PROMISES MADE; PROMISES KEPT.

To achieve our dream of Making Meru Great, we made 14 promises. These 14 promises are contained in my campaign booklet entitled "OUR PROMISE TO THE PEOPLE OF MERU." Today, I want to make a brief review of our efforts in fulfilling those promises for the 2 years that we have been in Government:

1. Mr. Speaker Sir., we promised to establish a visionary leadership and an all-inclusive governance system in Meru County. I am working closely with our Senator, Hon. Mithika Linturi, the Members of Parliament, the Honourable Members of this House, and other leaders so that together we can Make Meru Great.

I am also working very closely with President Uhuru Kenyatta, his Ministers and County National Government officials to bring more resources and development to Meru County. Members will recall that Meru County was chosen by the President to host his first Madaraka Day Celebrations this term, at Kinoru Stadium, on 1^st June 2018. Since that time, we have hosted many high level national events, conferences and competitions; because of our good relations.

Mr. Speaker Sir., immediately we got into office, we created the Meru Economic & Social Council (MESC), a high level think tank consisting of the most distinguished sons and daughters of Meru to propose a strategic vision and flagship projects for Meru County. I am happy to report, that this high level think tank, led by Ambassador Francis Muthaura, has worked very hard and developed a Meru Vision 2040, which is currently undergoing public participation.

Later this year, we shall discuss it at an all-inclusive Meru Leaders’ conference, which we are calling the "Meru We Want" Conference. This blue print, like Vision 2030 will provide a roadmap to guide the long-term socio-economic development of Meru County for the next two decades.

As you are all aware, we have also created 46 Ward Development Committees (WDCs) for every Ward and Sub-County Development Coordination Committees for every Sub-County. These Committees have helped us identify priority projects which are being implemented in all our Wards. This year, we shall train these committees and use them to monitor the implementation of our projects at the ward level.

Mr. Speaker Sir., I promised to ensure that no corner of Meru County is left behind. We have created a Kshs. 900 million Ward Fund through which each Ward is allocated Kshs. 20 million each year for grassroots development projects. So far, each of the 45 Wards has been allocated Kshs. 60 million. By the end of this year we shall have invested Kshs. 2.7 billion in development of our Wards. In 5 years, we shall have allocated Kshs.100 million to every ward, making a total of Kshs. 4.5 billion. Mr. Speaker Sir., the Ward Development Fund strategy has been a great success.

I want to thank the MCAs and Ward Development Committees through whose efforts we have constructed ECDE classrooms, issued bursaries, provided tanks and water pipes, built dispensaries, as well as many rural access roads and bridges in all the wards in Meru County.

Beginning this financial year, I have directed that all contracts from the Ward Fund, be undertaken by contractors sourced from that particular ward.

2. Mr. Speaker Sir., I promised to provide water in all our Wards. We had promised to sink at least 5 boreholes in every ward in the semi-arid areas of Buuri, Tigania and Igembe. This promise has already been fulfilled. So far, we have sunk 150 boreholes at a total cost of Kshs. 866 million. We have formed Borehole Management Committees for every borehole to ensure proper management and sustainability of this project.

For every other ward not covered by the borehole project, we have supported numerous water projects in all wards at a total cost of Kshs. 330 million.

Mr. Speaker Sir., I am proud to say that this is the first time that we are witnessing such massive investment in water in the entire history of Meru County.

3. Mr. Speaker Sir., we promised to improve agriculture to ensure food security and to raise the income for all households. My Government has identified agriculture as one the main strategies of defeating poverty in our society. To address chronic delays in coffee payments, we are implementing the Kshs. 500 million Ethiopian Coffee Cash Model, which has seen coffee farmers receive an advance payment within the first month of delivery of coffee cherry. This model is the first of its kind in Kenya and we have been highly commended for it.

In October last year, we began our Macadamia and Avocado Project, with distribution of seedlings to farmers worth Kshs. 90 million. We are establishing a huge macadamia and avocado nursery to enable our farmers access grafted macadamia and avocado seedlings at highly subsidized prices. We have organized potato farmers into cooperatives and are enforcing the 50kg rule to ensure better prices for their produce. This will tremendously improve potato production and marketing in our county.

I am happy to report that we have received a grant of Kshs. 1 billion from the World Bank through the NARIG project for transformation of our agricultural food and cash crop value chains.

Mr. Speaker Sir., as soon as I assumed office, I negotiated the withdrawal of Miraa cases which had for many years frustrated the release of Miraa funds. The new implementation taskforce, of which our County Secretary is a member, is spending over Kshs. 600 million to improve Miraa farming and marketing in Nyambene.

We want to modernize our agriculture. We have a strong program for farmer mobilization and farmer training, through farmer cooperatives. We are expanding the Kaguru Agricultural Training Centre at a cost of over Kshs. 20 million.

We have also formed a County Agriculture Board, made up of our top agriculture experts, to promote our agricultural linkages with programs through development partners and the private sector.

We are working with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, USAID, SNV and the Government of the Republic of Korea on various agricultural programs.

4. Mr. Speaker Sir., we promised to develop the tourism resources in the County. We have identified mountain tourism as one of our priorities. We are working with KWS and KFS to develop tourism in Meru County. To promote mountain tourism, we have opened up a road allowing people to access Mount Kenya and Lake Ellis from the Meru side. The Meru County Sports Council is organizing an International Mountain Race which will be hosted at the School of Leadership and Adventure at Ntirimiti in September this year.

To open up Meru National Park for tourism, we are working with the Meru Investment & Development Corporation to redevelop the Leopard Rock Hotel into a modern high class hotel which will attract more tourists into the park.

We are working with KFS to introduce tourism in Meru Municipality. We are opening King Muuru picnic site, an eco-lodge at Lake Nkunga, and a Golf Course in Lower Imenti Forest.

We have provided resources in our budget to enable our Department of Tourism to undertake rigorous marketing of our tourist resources.

5. Mr. Speaker Sir., we promised to improve the education sector, and to provide milk for all ECDE children in the County. Since the introduction of the free milk program, the ECDE enrolment has increased by 6,500 new learners. The previous government managed to complete 100 classrooms in 5 years. In less than 2 years, we have constructed 125 new classrooms, and completed 81 classrooms that were left uncompleted by the previous Government.

We are also expanding technical and vocational training by making sure our VTCs are well equipped. By the end of this financial year we shall have constructed 25 new VTC workshops and completed 8 incomplete VTC workshops at a total cost of Kshs. 32.7 million.

While Primary, Secondary and University education is not the core mandate of our County Government, we have decided with the County Education Board, and all other education stakeholders, to improve educational standards in Meru County.

We had promised to establish a Meru Education Fund with a minimum of Kshs. 100 million to provide bursaries to the poor, needy and bright students. So far, we have allocated bursaries worth Kshs. 289 million; this is almost 3 times what we had promised.

6. Mr. Speaker Sir., we promised to improve rural access roads in all our Wards. Various roads across all the Wards in this County have been graded and gravelled by our MCAs using the Ward Development Fund. Using the KRB funds, we have constructed major roads in all the 9 sub-counties at a total cost of Kshs 486 million. This financial year, we have agreed to partner with the Mechanical Department of Ministry of Transport, to increase tractors and road making equipment to enable us to open and maintain more roads at a cheaper cost. This year we have increased our budgetary allocation to roads to Kshs. 754 Million.

7. Mr. Speaker Sir., we promised to provide better health care services for all residents of Meru County. I must admit that we have many challenges in this sector, but we are determined to overcome them.

We are currently expanding the health facilities in our County. We are constructing 40 new dispensaries and 8 new maternities at a total cost of Kshs. 132 million. Construction of a new ward at the Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital is ongoing at a cost of Kshs. 350 million. We are also constructing a Renal Unit and an Intensive Care Unit at Meru Level 5 Hospital. For the first time in the history of this County, we have employed an oncologist, and we are now treating cancer patients in Meru Level 5 Hospital. Cancer has been an epidemic in Meru County. It has been commercialized above the reach of common man or woman. We want to demystify cancer and deal with it upstream. The medical bills of Kshs. 3 or 4 million are not an option for the majority of our people.

In order to focus and allocate more resources in the fight against cancer, we have drafted the Meru Cancer Institute Bill, 2019, which we shall soon introduce to this House. Once established, the cancer institute will mobilize financial resources and personnel for preventing and minimizing cancer in Meru County through public awareness campaigns, cancer screening and cancer management strategies.

We have created a Hospital Inspection Unit to ensure an attitude change among the hospital staff; improve our efficiency, and to ensure that our hospitals and dispensaries don’t lack medicines at any time.

8. Mr. Speaker Sir., we promised to modernize our towns. We have identified six top towns across the County for upgrading in the first phase. We have already created Town Management Boards for all these towns which will be in charge of town management, garbage collection, town upgrading, greening and beautification.

Mr. Speaker Sir., we have started laying cabro in our major towns in line with our promise of dust free towns. This year we shall extend the cabro projects to more towns such as Mutuati, Kangeta, Kiutine, Kimongoro, Kianjai, Kibirichia, Kiirua, Nkubu, Kithirune and Gatimbi to improve our business infrastructure and environment.

We are working with the World Bank to improve infrastructure here in Meru Municipality including improving Gakoromone and Makutano markets. This year we are spending Kshs. 100 million to cover Gitimbine and Majengo.

We are also expanding water supply systems and installing high mast floodlights in our towns to improve security and increase business hours as a step towards a 24 hour economy.

9. Mr. Speaker Sir., I promised to create a conducive business environment and to promote entrepreneurship and investments in our County. We want to support our jua kali, mama mboga, hawkers, boda boda, Matatu and the small traders in all our towns. To this end, we have appointed Market Development Committees for all our 160 markets. These committees have been mandated to take charge of the affairs of their respective markets and towns, under ‘MY TOWN MY BUSINESS’ program. We are working hard with the Department of Trade to improve our urban governance and market development in our county.

We shall work with these committees to ensure that our informal sector business community is not criminalized and harassed in the course of their business activities. These committees are a very important dispute and complaints handling mechanism.

10. Mr Speaker Sir, we promised to empower the youth of Meru. We have established the Meru Youth Service. Meru County was the first county in Kenya to establish a County Youth Service. This program is meant to deal with youth unemployment, youth poverty and other unique challenges such as youth apathy, crime, alcoholism and drug abuse. I have been saying that our problem is not that our youth are unemployed. Our youth are unemployed because they lack the necessary technical skills. We are empowering the youth to acquire skills for self-reliance and entrepreneurship.

In April this year, I presided over the graduation of the 1^st 1000 recruits of Meru Youth Service. 600 of them have been trained in various courses at Meru National Polytechnic. A number of them have already been engaged by different organizations and others are budding entrepreneurs who will be self-employed. We are currently recruiting 600 more youth to join the MYS. We have established a MYS training centre. We are also introducing a Youth in Agriculture program to open up opportunities for our youth in agriculture.

We are also promoting Meru as a games and sports tourism destination. I have introduced the Governor’s Challenge Cup for which teams from all the Wards will compete. Last weekend, we hosted all the national rugby teams for Kabeberi Sevens, at Kinoru Stadium. We want to promote rugby in Meru.

We are introducing archery to our polytechnics and VT centers. Later this year, we shall introduce mountain running and cycling competitions. We want our youth to excel in all these games and sports.

11. Mr. Speaker Sir., we promised to promote social and economic empowerment and to increase the political visibility of the women of Meru. We are working very well with Leaders of Maendeleo ya Wanawake and our Women Leaders. The Meru Twaweza Program was established last year to empower the women of Meru. The program has held a number of seminars seeking to promote social and financial empowerment and political visibility of women of this County. We have set aside a seed capital of Kshs. 15 million this year to support women groups to undertake tangible economic projects.

We are also the first county to enact a Sexual and Gender Based Violence Policy, to arrest the growing trend of violence and discrimination against women, including FGM. We shall continue to work with other stakeholders to implement this agenda.

12. Mr. Speaker Sir., we promised to uplift persons living with disabilities (PWDs), to ensure that they participate in the leadership and development of Meru County. I have appointed a Board to look at PWD issues and recommend the necessary interventions.

This year, we have set aside a seed capital of Kshs. 10 million for supporting the PWDs empowerment program. I have also directed that the 30% procurement quota for women, youths and PWDs be advertised separately from other tenders, to ring-fence their quota.

13. Mr. Speaker Sir., we promised to promote Kimeru Culture, Kimeru language, traditional songs and cultural dances. I have appointed the Meru County Cultural Board to assist the County Government in promoting Kimeru culture. We are recording our music in order to preserve it for the future generations. We have introduced a program to promote young Meru musicians and artistes this financial year.

Mr. Speaker Sir., I am a member of Njuri Ncheke. I have worked very hard to unite the Njuri Ncheke. I am happy to report that today we have only one Njuri-Ncheke, Njuri ya Kaura-O-Bechau. We are working with Njuri Ncheke to establish a Meru Cultural Centre at Nchiru which is currently at procurement stage. I have also directed that Kimeru language and songs be taught in all our ECDE classes.

14. Lastly Mr Speaker Sir, we promised to promote environmental conservation. We have formed Meru County Environmental Committee and partnered with KFS to improve our forest cover from 18 to 22%. We want to green and beautify all our highways and towns. We have already greened the Meru-Nanyuki Highway. We have gazetted 6 County Forests. We have partnered with the Ministry of Energy and the Kenya Forest Service to plant bamboo on identified hills at a total cost of Kshs. 70 million. We shall green and beautify more towns and highways this financial year.

Mr. Speaker Sir., to address our cycle of famine and drought, we have also created a climate change secretariat to advise us on climate change issues. We want to access carbon credit funds, to enhance our resilience and climate smart agriculture programs of our county.

Mr. Speaker Sir., so far our development focus has been principally on physical infrastructure-roads, piped water and buildings. We have not paid sufficient attention to social development. Mr Speaker Sir, politics should not be just endless power games. For us politics is serious business. It is about liberating our people from poverty.

As the late President Julius Nyerere wrote, in his book "MAN AND DEVELOPMENT", true development is the development of the people themselves. The purpose of development is to enable the people live better and happier lives, to eat better food, live healthier lives, to increase their knowledge and to enjoy themselves.

From FY 2020/2021, we shall realign our budget to focus more on social development. We shall allocate more resources to health, culture, youth, gender and social development, and to people living with disability. We want to empower our people to live better lives and to take charge of their own personal development.

Mr. Speaker Sir., we have done very well. In just two years, we have already fulfilled most of our promises. Meru is now among the 10 top performing counties. We want to do even better. We shall continue to work hard and to serve the people of Meru, with all our hearts and soul.

We know we are not perfect. We shall welcome constructive criticism and continually improve our performance.

Mr. Speaker Sir., we know we are not operating in a vacuum. We are operating in a competitive political environment. Our political opponents do not want us to succeed. They are opposed to everything we do. Whenever we say YES, they say NO. We are determined to make Meru great. Our march is unstoppable. We shall overcome all obstacles they place on our path. Mr. Speaker Sir., I have a lot to do. I have no time to waste with idle, visionless, irrelevant noise makers. 2022 is a bit too far. I will deal with them when the time comes.

Lastly, Mr. Speaker Sir., allow me as I conclude, to thank you once again, and all honourable members of this House for the tremendous support and co-operation you have accorded my administration. I also want to extend my gratitude to the people of Meru County for their patience and support, without which we could not have made the achievements I have highlighted above.

For Meru, not even the sky is the limit.

Thank you all for your patience and attention.

God bless you all, and God bless Meru.

Mr Speaker Sir, I now beg to move.

Kiraitu Murungi