The Interior Principal Secretary (PS), Karanja Kibicho on Thursday challenged the leaders in Kirinyaga to work in harmony and uplift the living standard of the community.
Dr. Kibicho said projects like the dual carriage from Kenol to Marua through Kirinyaga and many police stations being implemented by the national government may not mean much to Kirinyaga people without the unity of the leaders.
“When I come home, I find many people, sometimes a big crowd of people waiting for me, people looking for work, others seeking financial assistances, and all these things can be made possible if leaders can join hands and share responsibility” the PS said
He said to address some of the issues facing the community, he has started a programme where elected leaders and senior civil servants meet at his rural home to discuss and provide solutions to the problems.
“I belong to Kirinyaga and nobody should take me as an outsider, we have to show interest with what is happening in our county, when we see things are not functioning as they should, we have to speak out,” Dr. Kibicho said
He said if they kept silent and let things go wrong, then they are not useful to the community whose positions they hold in trust.
“Whether you like it or not, we will keep coming, this county will not be built on hatred but by unity of leaders – hapa ni nyumbani na ni lazima tufanye kazi,” the PS said amid cheers from the crowd.
“If we cannot talk to each other as leaders to help this people, then we should not be in some of the elective positions we have,” he said.
He said because of the unity of purpose, they were putting up a modern police station at Kagio and the programme to get rid of asbestos roofing in learning institutions is being addressed.
“Eradication of the illicit brew from the notorious Ngomongo village has also been achieved, we have a list of issues to deal with, and those who do not turn up for the leaders’ meeting, tell them we are not meeting for politics,” he said
“You can serve the public without being the governor; I am assisting in another way when I serve the public,” Dr. Kibicho said.
He said it would be difficult to uplift the life of the community members without the leadership speaking in one voice.
Dr. Kibicho moved the crowd when he said he received a text from a father who had a sick child and had been denied admission in Embu referral hospital.
He said the same man texted shortly after that to inform him that the child had died.
“Why was he in Embu even to the point of denial of admission to his sick child, don’t we have hospitals in this county, if we are not careful we will become beggars, please take caution,” he said.
The PS said it was not wrong to point failures for purposes of improvement.
By Irungu Mwangi
