The delegation of envoys from the European Union (EU) concluded a two day visit of Turkana County on Saturday.
EU Ambassador in the country Simon Mordue presided over the handing over of assets to the County Government donated by the Germany Government through German Development Agency (GIZ).
The assets flagged off by Governor Josphat Nanok include two vehicles, 20 motorcycles, GPS gadgets and laptops as part of the Technical Cooperation Facility Kenya project, which seeks to strengthen implementation capacity of County Government Departments and implementing partners.
The Governor thanked the envoys for the visit and taking time to understand the development progress made and challenges faced. He also thanked the German Government for the transport assets handed over which he said will enhance service delivery.
“As government provides services, our biggest consumer of our recurrent budget is cost of delivering services to the furthest point of the Turkana. I wish to thank the German Government for this donations that will go a long way to improve service delivery to the vast Turkana County. I also thank the Ambassadors for the support, in agriculture, health, education, water and businesses sector, which has contributed to eradication of poverty,” he said.
He appreciated the EU’s recognition of efforts by the County Government to market Turkana as an attractive tourist destination, through celebration of culture in Tobong Lore and unexplored beaches of Lake Turkana.
On his part, Mordue said the largest joint visit of European envoys chose Turkana because of the challenges faced despite investments by the national and county governments with support from development partners.
“Today is an example of what the EU does best, we are opening a bilateral programme funded by Germany that is situated within the overall context of the Sh450 billion of support that the EU and its member states is giving Kenya over the next five years,” he said. Other supports, he added, include through the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA).
He said the visit had also enabled the envoys have a perspective of the refugee integration programme and agreed that it was important that part of support to refugees included investment in projects to benefit the local community.
The Ambassador reiterated willingness of the EU to promote Turkana’s tourist appeal of the rich cultural heritage and archeological discoveries on human evolution.
German Ambassador to Kenya Annette Gunther said three projects in the County funded through GIZ were supporting the livelihoods of 60,000 residents directly and another 300,000 indirectly. The projects are Drought resilience in Northern Kenya, Food and Nutrition Security and the Technical Cooperation Facility Kenya project.
Also in the delegation were Ambassadors Mette Knudsen (Denmark), Aline Kuster-Menager (France), Erik Lundberg (Finland), Fionnuala Quinlan (Ireland), Martin Klepetko (Czech Republic), Laszlo Eduard Mathe (Hungary), Jacek Bazański (Poland), Luisa Fragoso (Portugal), Julia Pataki (Romania), František Dlhopolček (Slovak Republic) and Javier Garcia de Viedma (Spain).
Senior County Government officials in the event included Deputy Governor Peter Lotethiro, County Secretary Peter Eripete, Deputy County Secretary Robert Loyelei and a host of CEC’s, Chief Officers among others.
By Peter Gitonga
