Governor Dhadho Godhana has vowed to make Tana River County an investment hub by wooing investors to set up businesses in food and nutrition, security, water, urbanization, infrastructure, health, and housing sectors.
Governor Godhana and his Deputy Mahadh Loka were sworn in Thursday at Hola stadium by High Court Judge John Onyiego assisted by Garsen court Principal Magistrate Njambi Wasige.
In his inaugural speech, the governor said he would render effective service to the residents in line with the oath of office.
“As I embark on my second and final term in office, my key focus is to develop a peaceful, secure, competitive, industrialized, and prosperous county. Together, we will steer this County to become the destination of choice for investment,” said Governor Godhana.
“Although economic and social indicators show that Tana River ranks low compared to neighbouring Counties, we can redeem ourselves from abject poverty and cyclical effects of disasters because Tana’s focus is now on wholesome progression. We are banking largely on our peaceful, God-fearing communities, endowed with very rich and diverse cultures and environmental ecosystems,” he said.
The governor further stated that in his second term, there would be no room for monkey businesses as revenue collection would be automated to curb pilferage of funds.
He reminded both elected and appointed public officers that they were accountable to the people.
“I believe in open governance as the foundation for a modern democracy. The time for backroom deals and opaque decision making is well past, particularly in this digital age of social and online media,” he said.
My government, said Governor Godhana, will continue to enforce and improve the cashless revenue collection system across all major revenue collection centres within the county to seal the loopholes of revenue loss and proliferation.
He went on: “We will continue to set realistic targets for revenue collection and further demand accountability for the achievement of these targets. We will also strengthen the contract management system to weed out the briefcase and incompetent contractors”.
He said the county government would implement an innovative and functional system for receiving, tracking, and processing invoices from contractors and traders.
“This will create transparency in payments and reduce the undue delays in payments which have caused untold loss of capital and income to our contractors and merchants,” stated the governor.
The administration in its second term will adopt a value–for money approach in the implementation of projects to reduce the widespread practice of inflated bills of quantities and collusion between contractors and government officers.
The governor thanked Tana River residents for his re-election promising to ensure that public participation is conducted as envisaged by the Constitution.
By Sadik Hassan
