Machakos County government in partnership with National Youth Service (NYS) has launched barabara mashinani initiative.
Speaking at Machakos public works grounds during the flagging off county tractors, graders and excavators, Machakos County Governor Wavinya Ndeti said that the programme intends to open up rural economies and link market centres in small towns.
“This programme will entail rehabilitation, grading and murram of access roads to all 40 wards of Machakos County, we are targeting the most affected areas to help open up the rural economies and link market centres in our small towns and this is part of our 100 days’ rapid result initiative,” said Ndeti.
Ndeti stated that they are going to use national youth service equipment as well as the county government in-house equipment which were previously grounded but are now fully fixed.
She further added that the programme will impact more than half of the population in the county since it will boost trade and commerce in the rural areas and improve the economy for the local traders.
The governor said that all the forty wards in Machakos County will benefit from the programme and they intend to cover approximately 3000 km in total before the short rains.
“We need to do a minimum of at least two dams per ward before the rains come. We will deploy 20 graders to work for 30 days each grader doing a minimum of 5km per day, we will further deploy five dozers but we’ll add more for excavation of dams,” said Ndeti.
Ndeti noted that they are aiming to partner with Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA), Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KERRA) to construct more roads in future.
“I was working with the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, it is my intention to continue working with KURA, KeHNA and KERRA to ensure as we use our county office resources, we also utilize the national government resources to ensure that our roads are open,” said Ndeti.
Ndeti stated that she had a meeting with water firms where they agreed to bring water supply from 35 per cent to 65 per cent in the county by the end of her five years as the Machakos County governor.
She further urged the Members of County Assembly (MCAs) to do their oversight job and promised to work hand in hand with them to serve Machakos residents diligently.
Ndeti emphasised that a great percentage of food shortage in the county is caused by lack of water and urged the chief officers to ensure that all the rivers in the county have weirs which are high enough for water to pump up to 10 or 20 km.
The governor encouraged Machakos residents to plant trees to conserve the water and also pleaded with the county government officials not to let her down and vowed to ensure all county workers, even those in the rural areas are safe.
She further asked all those who have not paid their licenses and taxes to do so in order to boost revenue for enhancement of better services and pledged to harmonise and lower licenses to make it easier for the residents.
By Caroline Mutheu
