•Opiyo Wandayi Foundation injected Sh1 million into the social relief programme and more partnerships are being sought.
Image: COURTESY
While the face of the national response to the coronavirus of Health CS Mutahi Kagwe and President Uhuru Kenyatta, elected leaders at the grassroots level have been at it too. Some silently, others with fanfare.
From the Hassan Joho Foundation at the Coast to the foundations run by MPs in single constituencies, local leaders have been championing the response against the deadly virus, especially through social relief packages.
In synergistic combination of efforts from his county administration and his foundation, the Mombasa governor has been distributing essential household supplies to Mombasa residents in a program dubbed the Mombasa County Household Relief and Nutrition Support
For MPs, and in particular, Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi has also deployed his foundation as the avenue for mobilising support from the private sector to supplement efforts of the CDF committee and the county government.
Through the Opiyo Wandayi Foundation, he has been able to partner with philanthropists and established commercial entities to respond to the virus and to help victims of floods in Siaya county.
While the CDF has been instrumental in fixing the road networks, agriculture, education, water and sanitation, infrastructure and health, it has its limitations, Wandayi says.
The enormity of needs in rural areas makes it necessary to think outside the box for extra help.
“People look to us for solutions. While the distance I can go is limited, I have to find extra ways of helping, even in a small way,” Wandayi told the Star last week in a wide-ranging interview on alternative ways of providing social relief.
On April 7, barely a week after President Uhuru more restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, the Wandayi's foundation launched a social relief program with Sh1 million seed money. That bought food and essential supplies for his vulnerable constituents.
“This Covid-19 has taught us [MPs] a lot. I have learnt that with a suitable network on the ground, I can do a lot with little to achieve enormous impact,” Wandayi said.
“I have an exhaustive network right there. I have empowered my team so much that I don’t have to really be there for things to happen,” he explained.
With the CDF committee and the foundation, the MP has volunteers distributing supplies and support packages to needy people, including the elderly and the jobless. This gives him more time to source more resources.
During the interview, he made numerous calls, some to high-flying corporate heads, NGO executives and philanthropists introducing his foundation and pleading for partnerships to help the people of Ugunja. Other calls were to his point men on the ground assessing the response so far.
“People here may not know it but we are doing a lot to help them through every means possible. This virus is unprecedented and national and county governments alone can’t handle it alone," Wandayi said.
It's all hands on deck.
FROM SCRATCH
The agricultural economist said his focus has been on shoring up the rural economy by reviving food productivity, strategic food storage and agroforestry.
The plans are strategic, need-based and the work is methodical to avert haphazard development.
From the annual teachers and parents forum to the Ambira Cereals and Input Store constructed and handed to the National Cereal and Produce Board, the firebrand MP is revolutionising his rural constituency.
Prior to 2013, the road network and infrastructure in Ugunja -which was then part of the expansive Ugenya constituency - were dilapidated and the rainy season was a nightmare for moving people, goods and livestock along roads and across streams and rivers.
Communities would be marooned for weeks due to poor drainage but today there's a well-planned road network that even withstands the nursing of riverbanks.
The Strategic Five-Year Plans 2013-2018 and 2018-2023 resulted in numerous well-paved roads, construction of bridges and footbridges on rural feeder roads, including the Samuga, Sidondo and Koluma bridges.
The footbridges include Ruwe-Utende, Rambula-Imbaya and Ngunya-Nyamasare amongst others have made travel safer and increased trade.
Sh5 million water projects have been established across the constituency, including a Sh1.2 billion project underway, indications of the CDF committee scorecard.
Out of the nine water projects, two are funded by NG-CDF in Rang'ala sublocation in Simerro and the East Asango sublocation in Mbosie.
The Sh1.2 billion ultra-modern Ugunja water and sanitation project is funded by African Development Bank after lobbying by Wandayi, he said.
Further, during his tenure, five new secondary schools have been constructed across the constituency, aimed at achieving the 100 per cent transition policy. The CDF report says 50 per cent of secondary schools have twin science laboratories to prepare learners for medicine and other technical fields.
Regarding technical training, Wandayi boasts of the Ugunja Technical and Vocational College, an engineering college constructed from scratch.
The MP is also establishing the upcoming Ugunja KMTC where the construction of tuition blocks is underway funded by NG-CDF.