Kitui residents get diagnosed of possible disease infections during a free medical camp by the
government at the Kitui Teachers Training College as a part of build up activities to the
Mashujaa Day 2025 celebrations organised by the Thematic Committee in collaboration with the
National Days Celebrations, Technical Committee.
When the government devolved the national celebrations of Madaraka and
Mashujaa Days in 2016 to be marked in the counties the main aim was to increase
citizens’ knowledge about the country’s struggle for independence and the
sacrifices our forefathers made to end the colonial rule.
It was also to sustainably update the nation on what the government was doing for the people right from their regions with the aim of increasing trust and believability in governance affairs as the leadership pointed out its achievements and actions backed by the projects and programs conspicuousness.
These goals were later deepened in 2022 when President William Ruto took over the presidency and introduced a cable of activities to run hand in hand with preparations for the National Days’ celebrations.
These activities are to date targeted to advance the foresights of our freedom fighters highly regarded as heroes and heroines besides increasing citizen participation in governance through a direct mutual engagement.
They are also meant to breathe a fresh air into the celebrations and are usually rolled out with a week-long of activities - dubbed Thematic Week - in tandem with the National Celebrations’ Technical Committee preparations of the day being celebrated.
The actions include; exhibitions by public and private institutions among other government-led different activities sculpted along the week’s theme which is usually selected on the guidance of the President himself and then implemented by the ministry under which the theme aligns, in collaboration with a committee known as Thematic Committee in Kitui’s case, being the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum.
This committee is normally chaired by the Head of the Presidential Special Projects and Creative Economy Mr. Dennis Itumbi.
The Mashujaa Day 2025 week focused on energy as a driver of economic and social development marked as the Energy Week 2025 and running between 13th and 19th October, 2025.
The theme for the week was “Transforming Lives through Sustainable Energy Solutions,” aligned to Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), Kenya Vision 2030 and the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) with the aim of promoting sustainable energy solutions across electricity generation, heating, cooling, petroleum and coal chains.
Being the 16th County to host part of these celebrations this year, Kitui County almost missed the benefits that come with the Thematic week perks as the President ordered suspension of all public engagements by senior government officials.
The suspension was to give room for mourning and interment of the former Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga who had passed on while undergoing treatment in India the same week on 15th October 2025.
The committee was however, given leeway to go on with the activities that touched directly on the people’s welfare in fear of giving the Kitui residents a raw deal since it will take almost 23 years for the region to host such an event again.
This is because it has to wait until the remaining 31 counties have a chance to also do so in addition to the 15 counties that had already hosted either Mashujaa or Madaraka Day ahead of Kitui.
The National Celebrations Technical Committee also went ahead with the preparations of the event in fulfilment of the Public Holidays Act as read with Article 9(3) of the Constitution.
Enshrined in the constitution, the Mashujaa Day celebrations - just like any other national holiday - could not have been cancelled even as the nation mourned the death of Raila the hero, who greatly shaped the policy direction and the democratic space in the country.
Part of the suspended engagements included the Plenary discussions with the residents by various leaders led by the president himself, his Deputy and invited Cabinet and Principal Secretaries as well as thematic exhibitions and Town Hall Discussions with the Head of State.
The Committee was nonetheless, able to organise a 2-day Medical Camp on October 16 and 17, enabled by medics from the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Kenyatta Teaching and Referral Hospital, Mathare Mental Hospital, Neema Clinic and the Kitui Level-4 Hospital.
With the presence of Neema Clinic and Mathare Mental Hospital the residents were able to get eye check-ups and treatment as well as counselling on mental health respectively, while the KNH and Kenyatta Teaching and Referral Hospital handled other forms of illnesses and treatment with serious cases being referred to Kitui Level-4 Hospital for proper medication.
Cases handled involved; Mental health talk with 10 referrals being made for further counselling at Mathare hospital, Cancer Screening, HIV/Aids Testing, Blood Donation, Family Planning, First Aid training in collaboration with the Red Cross, eye clinic and point of care ultra-sound assessments among others.
The camp was made possible by a donation of adequate drugs by the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) and referrals enabled by the Kitui Level-4 hospital.
The events also covered sports featuring both men and women football and volleyball matches christened “Energy Week 2025 football and volleyball leagues” with players drawn from local teams and concerned state departments of Energy and Petroleum and their line State Agencies.
Football teams encompassed two teams from the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum representing KenGen and the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (REREC) against Kitui Itoleka Home Boys Football Club.
At the finals, KenGen lifted the winner’s prize after beating Itoleka Home Boys FC three goals to one.
On the women side, there were three football teams Mishale FC, Syomunyo FC and the team from the State Department for Petroleum.
Mishale won the game after they drew in the 90 minutes normal play and went for penalties where it scored eight penalties against their rival’s seven on 18th October 2025.
The elderly, were also not left behind as the Nairobi Grannies’ FC from Nairobi City County faced Kyambiti Golden FC and Machakos County team with Nairobi Grannies taking the day by scoring 3 goals to nil against Machakos County grannies at the finals.
The Volleyball for women incorporated Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC), Kitui Teachers’ Training College (KTTC), Mwingi United and Kituyi Township amongst which KPC won with 3 sets to zero against Kitui Teachers’ Training College.
In the volleyball for men matches, State Department for Energy, Kenya Power, Mwangeni Sharks and Kitui Township faced each other with the state Department for Energy emerging the victor after beating Kitui Township four sets to one.
Principal Geo-chemist Mr. John Munyao from the State Department for Petroleum who was in charge of the medical camp, sports and the other activities says, the Thematic Committee planned the activities punctuated with sports to demystify the belief that his ministry is only expected to indulge into scientific world without sports by virtue of the nature of its portfolio.
“By
bringing in our teams - the ministry which is dominated by scientists - wanted
to prove to Kenyans that scientists also participate in sports while at the
same time helping to bring people from Nairobi down to upcountry to interact
with people at the grassroots.
“Here you will find people of all classes and these games are another way of social mobilization for the Mashujaa Day celebrations at the newly constructed Ithookwe stadium.” Munyao explained.
Apart from football and volleyball games, the committee successfully organised for a 10 Kilometre race in athletics where majority champions came from Kitui TTC and the winner pocketed KShs.7, 000 with the least from number one to seven taking away Kshs.3, 000.
In addition to sports the Energy week saw schools with projects that had won during the Schools’ National Science Fair with projects in-line with energy invited to showcase their innovative projects in STEM.
Kitui TTC also gained over being the host of the activities in what the ministry regarded as “giving back to the community” by way of providing the institution a facelift through painting of classes, dug a bore hole and provided modalities to ensure a clean cooking solution by upgrading the institution’s cooking fuel from fire wood to gas.
The college also benefitted from a high mast lighting system powered by
solar to help in lighting the compound after it was found to covered in
darkness and had its toilets rehabilitated courtesy of KeTRCO.
The female students, on the other hand benefitted from free sanitary towels which were issued to all participating women teams at the end of the competitive games.
To the larger community, the government launched a 6KG Gas project targeting 24,000 households and distributed a number of them at a cost of only Sh1,500 for cylinders filled with gas.
The committee also mobilized the community to a tree planting exercise in primary schools within the county.
The trees were donated by the twin State Departments for Petroleum and Energy supported by their affiliate agencies; Ketraco, Kengen and GDC along with the Kitui TTC all having donated a total of 36,000 trees for the purpose.
They were planted in Yumbisye primary school (2,010), Ithookwe primary (3,015), Ilooi primary (2,010), Mutendea primary (2,010), Kyathoka primary (2,010), and Tiva primary school 2,000 trees.
A total of 10,000 trees were separately given to the local community to plant in their farms with the balance of 3,000 trees being kept at the Kenya Forest Service nursery and REREC Kitui energy centres 10,000 to be distributed at the onset of the October, November and December rains.
A high voltage electricity transmission line was also erected to power
Kitui town and Wote town of Makueni County and can also be tapped to help the
households along the wayleave, Munyao expounded.
A newly constructed Ithookwe Stadium, upgraded Ithookwe Airstrip and a number of roads were also added to the list of the perks as giveaways directly by the National Celebrations Technical Committee funded by the ministries of Interior and National administration and the that of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports.
At the end of the thematic week events - a day prior to the national day celebrations - the organisers felt that the residents actually experienced the impact of national Government on the ground.
