The County Government of Homa Bay has embarked on enhancing revenue collection at the beaches within the county.
Speaking Thursday at a meeting with Beach Management Units (BMUs) chairmen in Homa Bay town, Governor Gladys Wanga said that revenue collection is a vital exercise in the blue economy that must be subjected to accountability.
“We realized that our beaches are major partners in revenue generation in the county, something that has prompted my government to find out how collection is conducted there,” she said.
Wanga said that they had come to an understanding that revenue at the lakeside will be collected in two ways, for the county government and for the beaches.
“The beaches will continue collecting their revenue, but I would request the BMUs to also help the government in collecting theirs,’ said Wanga.
She reiterated that the training of the BMU chairpersons as promised earlier, will kick off by next month for easy facilitation of the activities at the beaches.
The governor stated that they have put a number of projects in place to provide a conducive environment for the beach users, which include construction of accessible roads and modern toilets.
The county boss further said that plans to improve education system around the beaches are also in progress to reduce the number of school dropout cases and that the county would give out bursaries to needy and bright students.
“The committee that will deal with the bursaries must include the chairpersons of the BMUs to ensure fair distribution of the funds along the beaches,” she said. She promised that the bright and needy children from the beaches will be supported to further their education.
Homa Bay Deputy Governor, Joseph Oyugi Magawanga said that the sporting activities at the lake such as boat racing can also be commercialized to help the people.
Magawanga said that Homa Bay has the largest part of Lake Victoria and challenged chairpersons of BMUs to take advantage of the water resource and train players to represent the country in Olympic Games.
“If our county can produce the best boat racers in the previous competition that occurred in Kisumu using the traditional boats, what can prevent them from winning the races using the modern simplified boats?” asked Magwanga.
He promised that their administration will provide any support needed in the sporting activities and urged them to commence boat racing competitions within the county.
By Brian Odhiambo and Sitna Omar
