Makueni County will be the first county to be declared corruption free zone, Makueni Deputy Governor (DG) Adelina Mwau has said.
Consequently, Ms Mwau said for this to be achieved, the county government has resorted to transparency, openness, involvement of wananchi in budget making and also identifying projects whereby they know the amount of money to be spent.
She further said that each of the projects will be managed by project management committees who are able to follow on the progress of the project on a daily basis.
“Corruption thrives in an environment where there is opaqueness, as a county government we involve all the stakeholders including wananchi hence there is transparency and accountability in all the projects,” said Mwau in her Wote office when the Chief Administrative Secretary in the Office of the Attorney General Prof. Micheni Ntiba paid her a courtesy call.
On fighting corruption, she observed that the county government was ready to work closely with the County Anti-Corruption Civilian and Oversight Committee (CACOC) especially through the administrative structures that extend up to the village level.
Further the deputy governor said that they will avail information from all over 600 projects the county is implementing in various parts in the area.
Speaking in the same function, the Executive Committee Member (ECM) for Devolution, Public Service and Administration Mr. Joshua Wambua disclosed that the county government was working on a legislation to form an Ombudsman office.
Consequently, Wambua said that wananchi needed to have an office that was independent to handle their complaints without any bias and expeditiously.
Currently we have a committee that handles complaints from wananchi. Though we have an Ombudsman office in Nairobi, it will take a long time for Mwananchi to get a response. We want to create an office that can handle the complaints independently,” said Wambua.
On his part, Ntiba said that it was imperative for CACOC to use the extensive structures of the county government to create awareness to the people at the village level in an effort to educate them hence fight corruption.
Further the CAS said that corruption cannot be fought by an individual saying it is a collective responsibility in the country. “With an informed society, the fight against corruption will be won,” said Ntiba.
By Patrick Nyakundi
