The Tana River County Commissioner (CC), Oning’oi Ole Sosio has told public officers in the county to comply with the President’s Executive Order Number 1 of 2019 to ensure smooth running of government projects and programmes.
The CC warned heads of government departments and semi-autonomous government agencies against dilly dallying in the implementation of the order, saying stern measures would be taken against them.
Sosio was speaking at the County Commissioner’s Boardroom in Hola Town during the first meeting of the newly created County Project Implementation and Coordination Committee that was created under the order issued by President Uhuru Kenyatta early this year.
“A Presidential Executive Order is not something to joke with as it has the powers of the High Court,” he said adding, “It is through an executive order that (former) President Mwai Kibaki repossessed the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) from KANU.”
Sosio said despite the National Government implementing numerous development projects country-wide, there was a belief that only county governments were doing so, hence the need for the committee.
“There is a widespread belief that the county governments are doing a lot, when in fact it is the National Government which is pumping billions of shillings to implement projects in those counties,” Mr. Sosio, who chaired the meeting, said.
He led the members, who included county heads of ministry department and agencies (MDAs) and semi-autonomous government agencies (SAGAs), through the Executive Order after which he directed all of them to report bi-weekly on all projects under their respective jurisdictions.
The CC told the officers that the committee was required to ensure the protection of public resources, provide evidence of fighting corruption and the provision of Huduma Numbers through the National Identification Management System (NIMS) as well as the government’s policy of 100 percent transition of students from primary to secondary schools among others.
Sosio said the government had already taken a number of parents who had married off their school going children and warned that parents and suitors would be equally held responsible if their school-going children were found to have been married off.
Other mandates of the committee, the administrator said, would be to report on the progress of the county action plan on countering violent extremism, detect radicals and radicalizers and report on all development programmes in respective jurisdictions, especially under the Big Four Agenda.
Sosio said the committee would strictly follow the progress of all government projects and programmes implemented by MDAs and SAGAs in the county and ensure members of the public are made aware of the same, and urged the officers to cooperate by providing accurate information.
During the meeting, members expressed concern that many departments were not properly facilitated to carry out their respective mandates, with some reporting that they lacked office space and equipment.
By Emmanuel Masha
