A United States delegation held talks with Kirinyaga County Assembly leadership on strengthening collaboration and opportunities for partnership.
Tim Trenkle, Political Counselor at the US Embassy and Mr. Cameron Jones, the Internal Affairs Unit Chief, held the meeting with County Assembly Speaker Muteti Murimi, County Clerk Kamau Aidi and Majority Leader Muriithi Kibinga on how the Assembly has been working with the County Executive, the partnership between two levels of government and impact of devolution in county.
In his remarks, Trenkle pointed out that he was impressed by the progress of the county in terms of development and commended the Assembly for enacting an enabling legislation and sound policies for the development of the county.
He expressed his desire to work with the assembly to make devolution work for the benefit of the people of Kirinyaga.
Speaking after the session, Murimi said that they were able to brief the delegation on what they were able to achieve for the last one and half years in terms of legislation and took them through the bills passed as well as their oversight role and the strategic plan of the assembly.
Murimi said that they would have a follow-up meeting to ensure that they could strategically partner to ensure that they help Members of County Assembly in capacity building and come up with a resource center where members could get materials to improve on their oversight and representative duties.
The Speaker also noted the forums would provide opportunities for members to visit the US Parliament for benchmarking and gain exposure on legislative agenda.
Muteti commended the US- Kenya relations particularly in supporting devolution, gender equality and advancing economic prosperity.
The Deputy Speaker Jinaro Jamumo said that Kirinyaga being one of the counties that have implemented the special economic zone, the US government would send a team to assess business investment opportunities in the upcoming Industrial Park in Sagana.
Njamumo added that they presented the challenge of unemployment in the country challenging them to take steps to allow easy labour migration.
On agriculture, they asked the US to consider investing in value addition of the produce and direct imports from the counties.
By Sarah Wachira and Tabitha Githinji
