The County Government of Kakamega has launched the County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP) 2022-2027 to guide economic development for the next five years.
The 3rd generation CIDP is in line with the Constitutional requirement that no government resources should be appropriated outside a planning framework.
Speaking at Bukhungu stadium during the launch, Governor Fernandes Barasa said the document was subjected to scrutiny by various stakeholders including members of the public, the County Assembly and took into consideration his manifesto, the National Government manifesto and Kenya’s Vision 2030 blue print.
The governor outlined health, water and sanitation, education, wealth creation, food security, social development and good governance as major issues that his administration will deal with.
He said the CIDP aims to improve the state of health in the county by increasing the number of health facilities while also completing the State-of-the-art Kakamega County level 6 Teaching and Referral Hospital to serve the residents.
On food production, the governor reiterated plans to increase food security through induction of farmers to best agricultural practices that will enhance food production.
The governor committed plans to focus on growth of small and medium enterprises, by providing loans through the Kakamega Microfinance Corporation to support their businesses.
Barasa, who is also the chair of finance, planning and economic development in the Council of Governors, however raised concern over continued delay of disbursement of equitable share to counties by the National Treasury.
The governor lamented that arrears amounting to 94.4 billion was yet to be released by the national treasury, which was impeding the day to day running of the counties.
He urged the treasury to expedite release of funds for the counties, failure to which the counties would experience a shutdown.
“We call upon the National Treasury to ensure timely and predictable disbursement of equitable share to all the 47 counties in line with the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act 2017 that dictates that funds be received by counties by the 15th of every month” he added.
The governor said the Council of Governors (COG) will push to have an independent national treasury to work with county governments, claiming that currently the exchequer seems to favour the national government in disbursement of funds.
In attendance were the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Council of Governors Ms. Mary Mwiti, Deputy Governor Kisumu County Dr. Mathew Owili and his Kakamega counterpart Ayub Savula, who hailed Kakamega County for being a trendsetter in the launch of CIDP.
Ms. Mwiti revealed that the 8th Devolution conference will take place in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County from July 15-19 2023.
By Leah Mwalo and Evans Stoba
