Bomet governor Professor Hillary Barchok’s first assignment as he takes the office for the second term will be fighting poverty and revolutionizing agriculture in the county.
Barchok said this during his swearing-in ceremony conducted by Narok High Court Judge Justice Francis Wanyoike at Bomet green stadium Thursday, August 25, 2022.
In his inaugural speech, Prof. Barchok noted that the majority of the people in the county were from humble backgrounds and his administration has put programmes in place to resuscitate most affected families.
“We have noted with keen concern how our people are suffering in poverty in some parts of the county. I want to assure you today as we take over the second term in office, my administration has structured out rescue measures and programmes to deal with this,” explained Barchok.
The governor further noted that Bomet is an agricultural-centred county but framers have been suffering from poor pricing of their farm produce.
He assured farmers that his administration has been in constant discussions with partners to seek out markets and better prices for their farm outputs.
“Bomet County is among the top leading county in milk production in this country with over 200 million litres produced from here annually. However, when we look at what our farmers earn from their hard labour is heart-wrenching. We will partner with different stakeholders from within and outside the country to ensure our farmers are enjoying their sweat,” said Prof. Brachok.
In order to facilitate the smooth transportation of goods from farms to markets, Barchok vowed to increase the road network in the county.
“To better the prices of our agricultural produce, we need to facilitate easy movement of the same. My administration is going to construct roads and repair the ones we have for these products to arrive to our markets in time,” explained Brachok.
Prof. Barchok, who will be starting his second and last term in office, garnered 158,898 votes against Chama Cha Mashinani (CCM) Party Leader Isaac Rutto, 137,323 votes, while Mr Benard Mutai (ANC) got 1,915 votes as Mr Andrew Towett (GP) secured 508 votes in the August 9 poll.
By Lamech Arisa
