Leaders from Trans Nzoia County have called for collaborative efforts between the county and national governments to boost economic investments in the county.
They said the county has a huge potential in several economic activities including agriculture, manufacturing and sports that could spur economic development.
Endebess MP Dr Robert Pukose called on the national government to invest more in infrastructural development in rural areas of the county saying it has become impossible for farmers to transport their produce to the market.
“Despite the county hosting two tea factories, Kapsara and Kapretwa, farmers from the region still face challenges of their tea reaching the factory in good time due to poor roads, increasing the cost of transportation in the area due to breakages and high cost of maintenance,” said Dr Pukose.
He said the county has a very high potential of producing international athletes saying there is need for construction of high-altitude training centers in Cherangani Hills and Endebess to give the athletes favourable environment for training.
Dr Pukose said many athletes from the area have been representing the country in various competitions both locally and internationally, winning gold medals for the country.
He added that some of the athletes have opted to cross over to the neighbouring country of Uganda due to lack of sporting infrastructure in the county hence now winning big for Uganda in the recent times.
Dr Pukose also said that the county has two national parks; Mt Elgon and Saiwa, which perform dismally in term of tourism attraction compared with other parts of the county.
He therefore called on the relevant authorities to invest more in the marketing of the parks that have a very high potential of reaping big in the tourism sectors for the county.
He added that the county has one of the unique sceneries like in the Saiwa National Park, home to the endangered Sitatunga antelope which is both a land and aquatic animal that is almost extinct in other parts of the country and also regionally.
The Endebess MP said proper investment on the two national parks would enable the county to earn foreign exchange and increase revenue collection from the tourism sector.
Kwanza MP Ferdinand Wanyonyi said the county has a very high potential of producing more than 7-8 million bags of maize annually but in the recent times, maize production in the county has gone down due to several factors including the high cost of farming inputs and declining soil fertility.
Wanyonyi is now calling on the national government through its big four agenda, to look into the issue of food production in the county to give incentives to farmers in order to boost production.
He added that farmers in the county also needed to go into value additions in the farm produce including the maize, saying this would help the farmers in the region to have more money in their pockets.
By Kosuri Valarie
