Turkana Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Mr. Pius Ewoton has urged contractors in the county to position themselves strategically to secure job opportunities in the sector.
Speaking during a training for contractors in Kakuma, Ewoton said the market is becoming more competitive even as the public demanded quality services from the contractors.
“As the world is getting more competitive every day, we need to position ourselves strategically, so that we can be in a better position to secure other opportunities,” he said.
The training was organized by the county government, ILO PROSPECTS, Turkana Chamber of Commerce and Kenya Institute of Highways and Building Technology for contractors in Kakuma to boost their capacity to deliver on projects.
A total of 25 contactors are attending the training that started on Tuesday.
Mr. Pius Ochieng, a representative from ILO PROSPECTS said, there would be three phases of training targeting contactors, supervisors and technical county staff.
“Training for contractors will take three weeks, supervisors for five weeks and Technical County Staff for two weeks and all this is geared towards improving the quality of public works and creating job opportunities through labor-intensive jobs,” he said.
Ewoton reminded the trainees who were mostly Chamber members of the need to grasp and utilize all the skills gained to improve the quality of work delivered to the community.
“As we talk of empowering and developing local content, this is the opportunity to learn the much-needed expertise and strengthen our capacity to benefit from opportunities targeting to utilize local content,” said Ewoton.
The Sub County Administrator for Turkana West Mr. Joshua Napocho lauded the collaboration of the Chamber and other stakeholders for the joint efforts that enabled the actualization of the constructors training.
Napocho said that the training has been timely especially now that Kakuma is going to receive Municipality status soon.
“With the coming of Kakuma Municipality, there will be a need for more skilled contractors who will conform to the infrastructural standards of a Municipality,” he said.
“We have many contractors across the county and to reach all of them we will need more of such training,” added the Sub County Administrator.
Kakuma Ward Administrator Mr. Ekiru Taale called on the contractors to uphold high standards of integrity while performing their duties and ensure they delivered services to the expectations and adhere to quality assurance.
By Peter Gitonga
