• Experts to help build the capacity of county assemblies on matters of budgeting and legislation.
• The agencies will also help Busia county chart its plans for the education, health, and revenue sectors.
Image: EMOJONG OSERE
The Busia government has engaged experts from key global organisations to help in the implementation of its agenda to the people.
The Paul Otuoma-led administration wants to use the experts to lay the ground for the development projects.
This include an upgrade of Busia and Malaba towns as well as improvement of health services.
The Busia government on Tuesday held meetings with representatives of the USAID, Bill Gates Foundation, Britam, LapFund, World Bank and Unicef to discuss the plans.
The team, working with county officers, will also look into the county revenue systems, budget-making processes for maximum returns to the people and support public participation initiatives.
The county chief says the aim is to involve residents on how best issues, which the Sospeter Ojaamong administration failed to address, can be dealt with.
Busia has for years—since the onset of devolution—been trolled over the sorry state of its infrastructure including the main bus terminal, county referral hospital and road networks.
Otuoma told journalists after the meeting that the experts will support the county government to transform his manifesto into a county-integrated development plan.
“Some are willing to support public participation and review of the county integrated development plan. We are in the process of doing the third review of the CIDP in the county,” he said.
The governor said the meeting with the development partners revolved around what needs to be done to anchor the government on a proper foundation in the next 100 days.
Otuoma said the discussions were guided by the rapid results initiative taken up by his administration with an aim to anchor the new team’s long-term development plans.
“This will be on the issues the county is facing on health, infrastructure, finance and organisation of the county government to give proper services to the people,” he said.
The county boss also said the meeting explored areas of cooperation with the development partners and how to transform the administration’s manifesto into a CIDP.
He said the experts will also help build the capacity of county assemblies on matters of budgeting and legislation.
“One of the major agendas is to look at the supplementary budget. For us to look at the supplementary budgets, we need to build the capacity of the key players,” Otuoma said.
On public participation, the governor said he would not want a scenario where projects are started without the input of the people.
“The stakeholders will give expert advice and sponsor certain programmes like public participation on the rapid results initiative programmes from the villages to the county level,” he said.
On revenue, the governor cited instances where own-source revenue has been exaggerated, hence setting the stage for pending bills with no budgetary provision.
“The budget-making process needs some expertise. It is knowledge-driven. For instance, we need to know how we get out of deficits.
“We need to know why our health systems are not responding to the needs of the people. Is it about technology or capacity in those areas?” Otuoma said.
The county chief said the experts will help them unlock some of the key technical challenges that have bedevilled service delivery in the county.
He named an ICU facility, which has not been working for two years, failed dialysis system and the absence of a municipal board to manage the towns in the county.
“That is why we want to come up with a holistic approach to some of the issues, before we start implementing them. There has been public participation and they have been well-thought through,” Otuoma said.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)