Day: June 7, 2024

Residents of Murera and Theta wards, Juja Sub County have raised Sh 0.5 million to construct a makeshift bridge that links between Ruiru and Juja Sub Counties after the one they were using was swept away by the recent floods.

The bridge connects the two Sub Counties at Canaan market and is crucial for accessibility and interactions between the two areas that trade a lot.

Led by the Maendeleo project chairman, Alfred Lagat, they said the move was necessitated by neglect by their leaders and other government agencies to intervene and that have been cut from moving to either side for close to a month.

‘We formed groups and raised our contributions from which we have constructed a concrete bridge after the suffering that we have been going through crossing the other side of the river. It will help us in the time being though it is not a strong one,’ Lagat said.

They said accessing schools and hospitals has been a challenge as they had to manoeuvre through the river which sometimes proved dangerous.

‘It has
been a difficult one month since the bridge was swept away. Some of us have been confined in our sub county thus limiting us access to services. We have reached our leaders but no help has been forthcoming,’ Lagat said.

The residents called on local leaders to help construct a permanent bridge that can withstand heavy rains saying in the event heavy rains pound in October, the makeshift one that they constructed may also be swept away.

‘We need a permanent solution because we have suffered a lot in this area. We use this bridge to take our kids to school, to go to work, and to the hospital and we fear the problem might recur in future if no action is taken,’ said Ruth Mibei, another local.

They also called on the government to also rehabilitate access roads so as to ease accessibility in the area.

Source: Kenya News Agency

The national government has offered a lifeline to over 9000 households in Ndoto ward in Samburu North Sub County after the Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) sunk six boreholes as part of the ongoing governments drought mitigation program.

Speaking during the handing over of two complete boreholes in Matepes and Mpatpat villages, KVDA Managing Director (MD) Sammy Naporos said that over 30,000 livestock and an unknown number of wild animals will also benefit from the water project.

He added that the boreholes which have been equipped with solar pumps will supply water to troughs and nearby schools at the rate of 7,000 liters per hour.

The MD noted that a single water facility will be utilized by many villages including some in the neighbouring Marsabit County who will now stop migrating in search of water.

‘This water projects will have a multiplier effect because when families settle in one area there will be an increase in school enrolment, nutrition will improve and feeding will be consistent an
d to a large extent it will mitigate communal conflicts which are common in Samburu north.’ He said.

On his part KVDA Chairman Mark Chesergon said that during this financial year, the national government has pumped Sh 130 million towards 12 water projects six in Samburu North and six Samburu Central Sub-Counties.

‘As a regional body, KVDA covers counties that are in Arid and Semi-Arid areas and we ensure residents of these areas have close access to clean water for domestic use and for their livestock.’ He said.

Florence Nasieku, a resident of Matepes said that before the borehole was sunk women used to travel for twenty-five kilometers in search of water for domestic use and it would only last for two days.

‘We would leave our houses at 3am to go and fetch water and come back at 7pm only to find our children unconscious due to excess heat and thirst.’ Nasieku said.

Samburu North MP Eli Letipila lauded the government’s efforts noting that Samburu North is among the driest regions in the country and durin
g the recent drought one fatality was reported in Mpatpat village.

‘This is the first water project in this area since independence and I can confidently say this is the true definition of Bottom-Up Economic Transformation because our women are now planting kitchen gardens besides the water kiosk to improve nutrition and earn a few shillings.’ Said Letipila.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Tharaka Nithi Woman Representative Susan Ngugi has initiated the Free Sanitary Towels Program in the county to raise awareness about menstrual hygiene in line with the government’s agenda of menstrual equity for all girls.

The event held at the County Commissioner’s office at Kathwana in Igambang’ombe Sub-County, the legislator said the transfer of the sanitary towels procurement program from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Gender was a boost towards the creation of a period friendly environment for school going girls, and thanked President William Ruto for championing the way and making menstrual hygiene a key priority under his government.

‘This is a project that was still under the Ministry of Education when we came into office. We lobbied and pushed for it to be transferred to the Ministry of Gender. Every primary school girl will receive eight packets of sanitary pads each with eight towels’, she said.

Sh876 million has been spent by the State Department for Gender and Affirmative Action
to distribute sanitary towels to over two million girls in public primary, junior and special schools countrywide.

The Woman Representative noted that the county had received an allocation of 191,288 sanitary towels for distribution.

Igambang’ombe Sub-County, with a total of 69 schools and 2,830 girls received 22,640 sanitary pads, Muthambi with 90 schools and 3,534 girls received 28,272 pads, Tharaka South with 64 schools and 3,153 girls received 25,224 pads, Tharaka North which has 62 schools and 3,533 girls received 28,264 pads, Maara with 62 schools and 4,355 girls received 34,840, Chuka with a total of 84 schools and 4,126 girls received 33,008 pads while Chiakariga that has a total of 48 schools and 2,380 girls received 19,040 pads.

Ngugi reiterated that they were pushing for more funds, to include in the program secondary school girls and the less fortunate women in the community.

‘We are pushing for more funds to cater for secondary school girls, young mothers, and street families to be included.
We shall work together with all government sectors to ensure we protect these girls and take care of them even as we support the government’s agenda of combating period poverty,’ she said.

County Commissioner David Gitonga said lack of enough menstrual hygiene products has over the years led to disruptions in the normal school learning when girls are forced to skip school, pledging support to ensure every school going girl gets access to the distributed menstrual kits.

He also noted that period poverty was a major cause of transactional sex for pads, leading to a high number of teenage pregnancies.

‘We are happy that Women Representatives through the Ministry of Gender are actualizing their promise that school going girls will be able to get free sanitary pads. Every financial year, we assure you that we will give the necessary support to ensure every girl can access the sanitary pads’, he said.

Igambang’ombe Sub-County Director of Education Daniel Waringa and the Gender Officer Mary Mugambi both stated i
n their remarks that the menstrual hygiene program would help minimize absenteeism and school dropouts.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Trans Nzoia County Government has set out measures to help reclaim water catchment areas in a bid to mitigate adverse effects of climate change.

Speaking during the commemoration of World Environment Day at Lumuli Primary School in Sirende Ward, Trans Nzoia County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Water, Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change, Pepela Wanjala urged the public to take a lead role in reclamation of riparian land.

As he advised the public to help spread the gospel of tree protection in water catchment areas, the CECM cautioned against activities that contribute to land degradation such as deforestation, grazing and farming a long river banks.

Although planting of trees is just one step geared towards ensuring that the environment is protected, the CECM noted that the biggest task lies in nurturing the trees for posterity.

‘I take pride in all those who have owned this initiative and have decided to drive it forward, I appeal to you all to further make it a daily routine. Let u
s protect this dam and other water catchment areas by planting more trees and nurturing them to maturity. Moving forward, we need to stop grazing of cattle in our forests for the trees we are planting to grow to maturity,’ he said.

Present during the exercise was the Chief Officer Dorothy Nyukuri who stated that the county has set in place plans for a riparian pegging process aimed at enforcing a 30-meters off riparian land regulation, adding that once fully enforced, rivers and other water sources will be protected.

She revealed that Lumuli, Karara, Wamuini and Misian dams will undergo rehabilitation in an effort to help diversify and boost agricultural productivity adding that farmers who live near water bodies and mountainous areas like Mount Elgon and Cherengany Hills will be trained on bee keeping and be given beehives to enable them gain an extra coin.

This action she said will be like using one stone to kill two birds since by maintaining the bee hives, cultivation along the river banks will conside
rably reduce thus helping to protect the environment, besides the cash the farmers will get by selling honey and other bee products.

Trans Nzoia County Director National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) Stanley Ambasa noted that adverse climate changes being experienced the world over are as a result of human activities.

‘As we celebrate this World Environment Day, we seriously need to think of the adverse effects human activities have caused on the environment. Floods which almost brought the country to a standstill a few weeks ago were as a result of deforestation. Lumuli Dam is one of the natural resources exposed to destructive human activities. We need to join hands to ensure that these resources are rehabilitated,’ he said.

In an effort to help achieve the 11.9 million annual county tree planting targets, stakeholders used the occasion to plant more than 3000 seedlings.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir has said that the construction of 4600 kilometres of high-voltage transmission lines between Kapkwen in Bomet and Narok counties is to ease the frequent power blackouts in the country.

Chirchir stated that the power projects between Kapkwen (Bomet) to Chemosit (Kericho) have been completed, while Bomet to Narok and Narok-Olkaria are ongoing as the government has sourced funds from the Korean Government.

Speaking during the dissemination of the Fourth Medium Term Plan (MTP IV) 2023-2027, held at the ACK conference hall in Kericho, CS Chirchir, who was the chief guest, said that Kapkwen to Chemosit power transmission lines have been completed and will stabilise power supply around the country.

The CS noted, ‘To prevent national outages in the country, the Energy Ministry is forced to switch on and off power in Kericho almost every other day because of the constraints from Mambo Leo in Kisumu to Muhoroni, and Muhoroni to Chemosit.’

‘The Bomet-Chemosit li
ne that is constraint, is built to carry 85 megawatts of power, and if we allow power to all the industries in the region, while at the same time lighting homes, it will suck all the power, and to sustain steady power supply, we need up to 150 megawatts to come through that line, which is only dimensioned to carry 85 megawatts,” Chirchir added.

The CS explained that a feeder serves about 2000 to 10,000 people during pickup hours, mostly in the evenings.

‘Owing to the demand for more power in the line in the evenings, it causes blackouts as the system senses danger and shuts down because of the Chemosit-Muhoroni line, and so occasionally in the evenings, what we do is switch off Kericho, because it takes so much power, and so we switch off the feeder simultaneously; Kericho today, tomorrow we switch off for Kapkatet, and sometimes on a day we switch off five to six feeders,” explained the CS.

Chirchir said the situation would soon be sorted out since the power line will be upgraded after the government so
urced funding from Korea to solve the challenge.

‘We have a contractor on site, and we started building the Narok Bomet, so that we don’t have to get all the power from Kisumu, Muhoroni, and Chemosit. The problem does not only affect Kericho, but it impacts heavily on Bomet, Kisii, Homabay, and Awendo in the Nyanza region.” Chirchir said.

‘When we switch off Kericho, we have to switch off another area to sustain enough power supply. If we don’t do that, we will have to shut down the whole country. I’m not sleeping and am really working on it to resolve the challenge. Every now and then I receive calls from the highest office on how far I have gone to resolve the challenge,” he elaborated.

The CS further said that the projects are estimated to cover 15 months but have been shortened to a minimum of two months to address the challenge, saying that plans are underway to ensure that 30,000 public institutions are connected to the national grid.

‘There should not be a primary school, a dispensary, a high sch
ool, or a market that is not connected to electricity as of today,’ Chirchir pointed out.

The ICT authority is working with Kenya Power on this project connecting the fibre optic cables to every transformer in the country so that all those 76,000 transformers in the country have a fibre optic cable reaching Kenyans meant to enable them to access the broad band connectivity network within 600 metres from every household.

This, he said, will spur economic transformation where the youth will generate income through content creation through digital jobs and social media marketing.

Kericho County being part of planned projects in MTP IV projects for the 2023-2027 plan, the national government intends to construct the Kerenga Airstrip, complete the construction of Kericho pool housing, establish 60 housing units at Sondu Police Station, and establish and operationalize the Primary Healthcare Networks (PCNs).

Other projects captured in the MTP4 for Kericho include the construction of a new level 3 hospital in co
llaboration with the county government. Construction of roads, noting that the Anaimoi- Kapka-Tenges/Kapkayo-Kapsaos road is 23% complete. Kericho Northern Bypass, the KTSSP Interchange at Kericho Jn/C23, and the Ahero turnoff (Jn A1/B1) have also been completed.

The Energy CS planted trees at Keongo Primary School in Kericho during his visit, a move that the Kenya Kwanza administration is advocating for the growing of 15 billion trees in the next 10 years in the country.

‘I’m expected to plant 53 million trees in the next 10 years in the Energy and Petroleum Ministry. The president is taking the issue of tree planting very seriously and has put in resources to encourage Kenyans to grow trees and guard against their destruction. We need to plant more trees in Chepalungu, Kipkelion Forest, and other forests in Bomet and Kericho Counties,’ Chirchir said.

‘Our economy continues to face challenges including widening inequality, low productivity, and susceptibility to economic shock. These challenges demand urg
ent and absolute intervention to gain lost ground and align ourselves with MTP IV aspirations,” Chirchir said.

The vision of 2030 MTP 4 is geared towards improving the lives of those at the bottom of the economic pyramid. The details are captured in the BETA Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda.

Consequently, the CS said it was imperative to ensure that MTP4 and the County Integrated Development Plans (CIDP) are aligned with the Bottom-Up Economic Transformational Agenda (BETA) objectives and key priorities.

‘We will leverage technology and scientific advances to stimulate economic transformation in a sustainable manner. We need to address the question of health issues. Health is a big challenge; we need to pool all together to avoid the urge to sell properties in order to pay for health care,’ he pointed out.

Also present at the forum were Kericho County Commissioner Gilbert Kitiyo, Kericho County Executive Committee Members, National Government Heads of Departments, the National Treasury and Econom
ic Planning Ministry senior staff members, and members of the public from Kericho.

Source: Kenya News Agency

The Kenya Ports Authority has announced plans to set up a modern passenger terminal at the port of Kisumu to revive transport through Lake Victoria.

Through partnership with Trademark Africa, KPA technical team has completed designs for the project which is expected to inject new life in the revamped Kisumu Port.

KPA General Manager in charge of infrastructure development (GMID) Eng Mathew Amuti said the initiative dubbed Kisumu Port Resilient Infrastructure project targets to enhance connectivity in the East Africa region to spur trade and economic development.

He said the KPA technical team was reviewing the designs for the passenger terminal to be located at the junction of Oginga Odinga street and Obote road to determine the actual costs for the project ahead of the tendering process.

The passenger terminal, he said will have all aspects of international entry/exit point, check in/check out facilities, surveillance cameras, Port Security Office, Border Patrol Unit, Kenya Coast Guard Service, Immigrat
ion Offices among other government agencies.

Other amenities, he said include an access road linking Kisumu Central Business District (CBD) and western region enroute to Uganda, a jetty for vessels plying the lake locally and internationally, ramp for ferries, security systems and restrooms.

Designed to optimize passenger flow, the terminal, he said, includes segregated areas for ferry passengers with substantial cargo, local travellers and international guests with a capacity of over 500 passengers at the jetty and 1, 000 at the ferry terminal per hour.

Travellers, he said, will have a range of facilities such as restaurants, forex bureaus and offices for taxi operators at the terminal premises.

In addition, a new warehouse with a control tower for communication gadgets across the lake will be set up at the Kisumu pier to facilitate the rollout of services.

He added that the terminal is linked to feeder ports of Muhuru Bay, Homa Bay, Sena, Mbita, Asembo, Luanda K’otieno, Usenge and Sio Port within the K
enyan waters which are also being developed in phases.

In an exclusive interview with KNA, Eng. Amuti said the Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA) will set up a rescue centre at the terminal to carry out bathymetric surveys.

International and local navigation channels, he added, have been mapped with additional navigation aids already identified.

KPA, he said, has partnered with the county government and relevant national government agencies to sensitise and mark areas for fishing to avoid installation of nets and fish cages in vessels’ routes.

Early warning system, he added, has been developed and is undergoing tests to issue alerts on manifestation of water hyacinth.

Eng. Amuti said once completed KPA will operate the terminal alongside other government agencies with the private sector bringing in cruise ships and vessels.

This, he said, will facilitate group tours for tourists and international travel in the East Africa Region taking a relatively short duration.

Before operations grounded at the port, th
ere used to be seamless connectivity of rail and lake steamers.

Passengers would disembark at the Railway Station and walk down to catch a steamship to Asembo Bay, Kendu Bay and Homa Bay.

MV Uhuru I also used to transport fuel from Kenya to Uganda and Tanzania. A new vessel MV Uhuru II was recently launched by President DR. William Ruto to enhance the capacity to ferry petroleum products through the lake.

Eng. Amuti said the new development was expected to scale up activities at the Kisumu Port which has been dormant for decades.

The port, he added, has witnessed a remarkable growth since the year 2017 when KPA took over its operations from Kenya Railways with cargo handling scaled up to 127,000 tonnes in 2023 up from 3,000 tonnes in 2017.

Source: Kenya News Agency