The sh60 million Saku Technical Training Institute (TTI) project in Marsabit County is complete and the State Department for Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) is gearing towards its operationalization.
The proposed institute which Saku constituents and the Marsabit county residents in general have waited for nearly a decade will be handed over to the ministry of education in mid-April 2024.
The institute is set to admit about 1500 students for various technical courses at the start, a number that could grow with time.
The project which is co-funded by the ministry of education and the national government constituency development fund (NGCDF) started in 2015 but has dragged on for a long time because the contractor, Malach general Contractors limited, was most of the time away from the site because of insecurity.
The officer in-charge of projects at the state department of TVET Ms Jane Kariuki was keen at taking over the project which is now complete so that its intended purpose of admitting school leavers for technical skills empowerment could be actualized.
Ms Kariuki who led a team of inspectors to the project which is located within Milima Tatu area in the outskirts of Marsabit town asked the contractor to ensure final works like cleaning and cutting away of waste generated during the construction is done within the next 14 days.
“The contractor has been paid in full all his dues and we would want him to hand over the project to the government so that it can be put into use to the benefit of the public,” she said.
Mr Ian Mutwiri, the procurement officer at the Meru National Polytechnic under which the TTI would be administered said the ministry of education had spent over sh 50 million while the Saku NGCDF supported its construction with sh 10 million.
The project suffered big setbacks from insecurity brought about by ethnic conflicts which occasioned the contractor and the government losses through rampant vandalism while 3 lives of workers were lost at the project site.
The government in collaboration with stakeholders invested in peace building efforts and managed to restore harmony in the last three years with the local pastoralist communities now coexisting peacefully and amicably sharing grazing resources.
However, the team found out that the institute which has been connected to electricity still requires more funding to put in place supporting facilities for it to be operationalized.
The local NGCDF committee chairman Guyo Bonaya who was present pledged that the office would finance the construction of an ablution block with 12 pit latrines, construct an underground water tank with a capacity of 10,000 cubic meters with gutter fittings to it and leveling of the compound.
He said that the area MP Dido Raso had okayed to the funding of the annexes to the project in order to bring it to the required standards and be ready to admit students many of whom were wasting at home.
By Sebastian Miriti
