North Rift governors to revive NOREB after eight years dormancy

Governors plan to revive the North Rift Economic Bloc, which has been largely dormant and on the verge of collapse.

The governors held an initial meeting in Naivasha on Thursday where they agreed to start the process of reviving NOREB.

The economic bloc was established by eight North Rift counties and has been in existence for eight years.

Its mandate is to coordinate joint investments and other activities for the member counties.

The counties include Uasin Gishu, Nandi, Trans Nzoia, Baringo, Samburu, West Pokot, Turkana and Elgeyo Marakwet .

Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago has been serving as NOREB chairman since he was elected governor.

The new county chiefs have however agreed to elect those to lead the regional economic bloc.

Former Nandi governor Dominic Biwott who was CEO left to join the British High Commission and his place had been taken over Dr Godfrey Chesang.

“We are in the process of planning for our first summit but we have other activities being under taken by the secretariat,” he said.

Chasang said the summit is the top organ of the bloc but it has six other organs including the economic council.

The governors who form NOREB currently include Jonathan Bii (Uasin Gishu), Stephen Sang (Nandi), Wisley Rotich (Elgeyo Marakwet) and George Natembeya (Trans Nzoia)

Also, Benjamin Cheboi of Baringo, Simon Kachapin of West Pokot and Jeremiah Lomurukai of Turkana.

Most of the county chiefs were at the Naivasha meeting

In the last eight years, NOREB faced several challenges mainly related to shortage of funding.

Nandi and Trans Nzoia had also joined the Lake Basin Economic Bloc but retained status as members of NOREB.

LREB brings together counties in Western and Nyanza regions.

Governor Sang said there was no mistake in Nandi being a member of the two blocs because the county has interests in both regions.

“For example we have markets for our milk in Nyanza and our interests in the cereals sector are more in the North Rift region. So we can easily work in both,” Sang said.

Chesang however said they are now set to roll out major activities for the counties to help foster development in the region.

Initially NOREB had targeted to coordinate implementation of joint activities valued at more than Sh200 billion.

“Our main priority is to tap the economic potential in the region to benefit our people and work with both the national government and development partners,” Chesang said.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)