Rinah Odengo, policy advisor to the Prime Cabinet Secretary, during a press briefing in Garissa/STEPHEN ASTARIKO
The projects President William Ruto launched during his Northeastern tour are on course, a project verification team from the Prime Cabinet Secretary’s office has said.
Rinah Odengo, a policy advisor to the Prime Cabinet Secretary, said much of what the President promised during his February development tour of the region has been done, with other projects still on course.
Odengo spoke in Garissa during an inspection tour of some of the projects in the company of Northeastern regional commissioner John Otieno and other top government officials.
“The implementation of the projects is moving on quite steadily. One of the concerns people were raising is about funding, but during this visit, no contractor has told us anything about pending bills,” Odengo said.
Other projects where contractors are on the ground include the construction of the Isiolo - Modogashe road, construction of 220 units of the affordable housing project in Wajir town, upgrade to bitumen standard of the 90km Odda-Bute-Danaba- Wajir road, and the expansion of Wajir East Technical Vocational Education and Training.
The Garissa County Aggregation and Industrial Park project, which has created jobs for over 100 local youths, is at approximately 65 per cent completion.
The industrial park, jointly funded by the national and the Garissa county governments at a total cost of Sh490 million, is set for completion by July next year, although the contractor, who has already been paid Sh 329 million, is working to complete the project by September this year.
Northeastern regional commissioner Otieno said national identity card applications have risen due to the abolition of the vetting process for citizens in the region.
However, Otieno was quick to note that the government has put in measures to ensure that only the deserving Kenyans can acquire the ID cards.
“We are impressed by the level of implementation of the national government projects. The government is deliberate in terms of the projects because the aim is to empower the population economically and be able to create employment opportunities for the youth, who are a critical segment in our society,” Otieno said.
“The Garissa regional immigration office, which was recently reopened by the President, has so far processed over 2,500 passport applications, of which 1,700 have already been collected or are awaiting collection. This is a game-changer in this region because now the citizens get to access services."
