Kakamega County Government will strengthen partnership and collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development(USAID) and partners to enhance development and minimize duplication of activities.
Governor Fernandes Barasa said the county government is keen on strengthening the partnership to address the resource gap in the County Integrated Development Plan(CIDP) of almost Sh 40billion.
Speaking during an opening ceremony for the USAID Partners day at the Kakamega Golf Hotel, Governor Barasa appreciated the various interventions supported by USAID and partners in the county.
He said he is looking forward to more collaboration and support from the development partner on infrastructure development like sewerage and sanitation as Kakamega seeks to become the sixth City in the country.
“Soon we are commissioning three Municipalities, in Malava, Butere and Matunda. And one of the areas of collaboration is to have our partners supporting us in improving the infrastructure of sewerage because you cannot be a city without a proper sewerage system,” the governor said.
USAID Kenya and East Africa Deputy Mission Director Bert Ubamadu noted that the US government has had a partnership with Kenya for over 60 years to support development projects in the country.
He noted that USAID works very closely with Kakamega Governor and his team to improve health outcomes, literacy programmes for grades 1 to 3, water and sanitation as well as in the Agriculture sector.
Ubamadu noted that USAID is working to improve cooperatives and also support improvement of health for the orphans and vulnerable children, tackling malaria among various interventions.
“The bottom-line is that USAID believes in a partnership of what we call localisation, which means we try to work where the people are,” he added.
“We would really want to thank the governor and his people of the tremendous collaboration that we have been doing here in Kakamega County and we are looking forward to work together, to co-design our programmes, co-create, co-implement, to monitor, evaluate and look at the best practices to what we do for the people of Kakamega,” Ubamadu noted.
He disclosed that Regen Organics which was established in Kakamega is operational, producing fertiliser for Kakamega county and neighboring counties.
“Through support from the USAID Ubora Mashinani activity, the county government and Kakamega development trust have developed a soon to be launched public participation policy,” he noted.
By Moses Wekesa
