The National Government Coordination Secretariat (NGCS) has called for synergy among players involved in the implementation of the Accelerating Clean Cooking Access (ACCA) project for schools.
Speaking on the sidelines of a field verification visit on various projects in Nyeri County, Principal Administrative Secretary in the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary Juliana Yiapan said the such coordination will ensure implementation of projecst not only run seamlessly but also averts unforeseeable risks like leakages that can turn tragic to both learners and workers.
Yiapan spoke after her team toured Karatina Girls in Mathira where the Government has installed a 2,000-kilogram LPG facility as one way of promoting clean cooking energy at the institution.
She similarly promised to raise the matter with the relevant state organs and the Principal Secretaries concerned to ensure the recommendations are implemenetd.
“The problem with the projects we have inspected today is not funding. I think there are gaps and I would point at the Liquified Petroleum Gas project for schools where we have recommended that the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Energy work together and come up with guidelines for the learners,” she said.
“Liquified Petroleum Gas is a hazardous product but also a useful product. We need guidelines as we roll out the program for the rest of the schools to ensure the safe of the learners and the users and this can only be done when the two ministries work together.”
The Government is targeting to install energy efficient cooking LPG tanks in at least 11,000 schools across the country.
Among schools that have already benefitted from the ACCA project in Nyeri include Naromoru Girls’ Secondary school where the Government commissioned a 2,000 capacity LPG tank in February last year.
The initiative which is jointly funded by the State Department for Energy, the United Nations Development Programme, the Embassy of Japan and Community Road Empowerment will now see schools shift from the use of firewood to LPG as its main source for cooking fuel
The team also visited the Affordable Housing Project (AHP) at Blue Valley where the Government is constructing 381 housing units.
This project is currently at 32 per cent completion stage and is set to be completed by February next year.
The entire project is expected to cost the Government Sh877 million once complete.
Government plans to construct at least 1 million housing units by 2027 with an average of 250,000 houses each year under the Affordable Housing Project (AHP).
The multi-billion project aims to not only provide decent homes to deserving Kenyans at low cost but also trigger economic transformation, job and wealth creation.
Earlier on, the team had been briefed on the progress of Universal Broadband Connectivity (UBC) in which the Ministry of Information, Communication and Digital Economy is partnering with Kenya Power to lay 100,000 kilometres of Fiber Optic cable across the country to enhance internet connectivity.
Out of this,52,000 kilometre of the Optic fibre will be done by the Government while the remainder will be implanted by private sector.
“This team is doing this work on behalf of the committee of Principal Secretaries, National Development Implementation Committee which is following up on the implementation of priority government projects to ensure they are completed within time and within the budget. We were able to see the implementation of the 100,000 kilometres of fibre cable being fast-tracked by the Ministry of Information, Communication and Digital Economy and Kenya Power.
We have been fully informed that within a few months, a substantial length of cable has been rolled out,” Yiapan stated.
The team also visited and accessed the construction works of the Assistant Commissioner’s Office at Gakindu in Mukurwe-ini before winding up their tour at the Nyeri National Polytechnic where the team inspected the progress of construction of the Hospitality and Tourism complex.
Ms Yiapan said that the assessment and verification of projects is being undertaken in the whole country to ensure that Government programs are completed on time and within the set budget.
“We have a total of 51 priority projects under the Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda that the committee is closely monitoring their progress and completion so that the intended beneficiaries who are the citizens are able to reap the benefits for which the government decided to do the projects,” pointed out the administrator.
By Samuel Maina and Wangari Mwangi
