The road map to uplifting Marsabit town to a municipality has finally found bearing after a petition filed in court by a resident opposing the Charter was withdrawn.
Consequently, the area governor Mohamud Ali has urged members of the County Assembly to increase their oversight role in order to ensure that contractors complete development projects within the agreed timelines.
Ali, who was officiating at opening of the 4th session of the second Marsabit County Assembly, asked the members to make sure the Charter is operationalized.
The municipal Charter was granted in August last year by the governor following approval by the Assembly.
The governor underlined the importance of upgrading the town to a municipality to enable improved services and development, adding that the implementation of the Charter would now proceed because the court hurdle had been removed.
“Implementation of the charter has been delayed due to a court injunction obtained against us, but the good citizen has withdrawn it and I will soon be nominating seven individuals to the Municipal Board who will oversee the affairs of the Municipality,” he said.
Ali asked the county assembly to approve the names of the board members that he would be forwarding for endorsement.
On development, he said that his administration has ensured that development projects which rolled over from last financial year had remained on course, despite a biting financial crunch occasioned by pending bills.
The projects include key flagship projects like the Medical Training College, the construction of a fish factory at Loiyangalani and the construction of Level 5 Hospital at Sololo.
The governor called on the county assembly to continue exercising their oversight and supervisory role to ensure that the projects do not delay and ensure value for money.
Meanwhile, the county government with a Sh8.3 billion budget for the year 2019/2020 has not received any funding from the National Treasury for the months of December and January derailing most of its operations.
The financial crisis at the devolved unit has been occasioned by the National Treasury’s demand that counties should settle pending bills in totality before attracting further funding.
The county government’s pending bills stands at Sh760 million.
By Sebastian Miriti
