Garissa Governor Nathif Jama has called on area residents to support his administration in delivering services on the pledges he made during his campaigns.
Speaking at Garissa primary school play grounds Thursday moments after taking the oath of office alongside his Deputy Abdi Dagane, Nathif promised to prioritize improving health, water sector, education, agriculture and livestock. High court judge Lady Justice Racheal Ngetich administered the oath.
Nathif who won as an ODM candidate garnered 69,342 votes beating former governor Ali Korane of Jubilee who managed 26,148 votes while Dekow Barrow of UDA garnered 13,602 votes.
“Now is the time to rebuild our county and improve the lives of our people. We all have to move in one direction and support each other to make this happen because we are faced with a myriad of challenges,” Nathif said.
“My governorship will vigorously seek to restore trust in leadership in our county and give people hope once again that true leadership is about servant leadership. With profound gratitude and great humility, I wish to state that I am returning back to work on a platform of tried and tested and this indeed is the beginning of a new dawn for our county,” he added.
Nathif has started implementing some of the things he had promised in his manifesto including restoring water after brokering a deal with KPLC and the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority to restock drugs in hospitals.
The governor admitted that he was taking over a county faced with a myriad of challenges ranging from lack of water, a tattered health care system that is in ruins and huge amounts of pending bills that requires urgent attention.
“Despite the heavy challenges that we are inheriting, I am confident that our county’s best days are yet to come and it is my sincere intention to give our county a momentous fresh start aimed at moving our people from despair,” he said.
“Devolution was premised on delivering a more equitable distribution of public resources to all parts of the county. I wish to state that as the pioneer governor of this county, we had laid down a strong foundation for development and we are going to take it from there,” he added.
Leaders present during the ceremony included MPs Aden Duale (Township), Abdi Shuriye (Balambala), Sala Yakub (Fafi), Abdikadir Hussein (Lagdera), Abdi Ali (Ijara), Udgood Siyaad (Women Rep) Abdul Haji (Senator), DPP Noordin Haji and area County commissioner Boaz Cherutich.
By Jacob Songok
