Migori Senator Eddy Oketch has urged the National government to increase budgetary allocation for the counties from Sh391 billiion to Sh450 bilion to enable them to run their projects effectively.
Oketch who met the Rongo Sub County residents in his continued met-the-people oversight tour on county developmental projects said that the Senate will continue to fight for more resources to counties.
Oketch said that by allocating Sh 450 Billion, Migori County will be able to benefit from about 20 Billion from the allocation which will boost its economic transformation agenda for the county residents.
Currently, the national government has allocated 391 billion for the counties, a Sh 6 billion addition from the previous allocation of Sh 385.4, in which Migori County will be able to get about 10 billion from the same allocation.
The legislature explained that the first agenda when the Senate house opens this February will be to fight for more resource allocation to enable the counties to perform their functions effectively.
Oketch disclosed that his oversight tour established that the majority of the county residents’ concerns were on Early Childhood Education (ECDE).
Although Migori County has embarked on building 144 ECDE classrooms, the majority of which have already been finished, the Senator pointed out the areas that the county needed to invest in to help benefit the county ECD children.
He said that the ECDs in the county had serious challenges that need to be improved on, including the feeding programme, ECD abolition blocks, and general access to learning materials.
In the last session at the Senate, Senator Oketch sponsored a bill for the increase of minimal wage for ECD teachers to at least Sh 30,000. He emphasized that the ECD teachers were being subjected to a lot of work without proper compensation.
Oketch said that according to County data statistics on ECD, the ratio between the teacher and pupils was 1: 80 unlike in a normal scenario where the ratio was supported to be 1: 16.
“A good foundation for your children is a good foundation for our society and therefore as a senate, we will make sure we fight for additional county resources to enable the counties to implement noble projects like issues of ECD,” he said.
By Geoffrey Makokha
