Wajir governor roots for unity between assembly and executive

Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi has asked members of the county assembly (MCAs) to work with the executive, vowing to use public resources prudently for development.

Addressing MCAs during the official opening of the House, Mr Abdullahi promised to upgrade Wajir County Hospital to a Level Five facility.

He said his administration had opened 18 of 70 health facilities.

“To get the county back on track, we must choose to remedy the situation by ending impunity,” he said.

With empty accounts and unreasonable and unverifiable pending bills, the vast county also faced a severe and devastating drought, with rains failing in the last five seasons.

On persistent drought, the governor said: “Development can wait but saving lives won’t. We will work together with the national government and development partners to save lives using our county budgets.

“We will continue to provide water to those in distress and purchase food rations for needy families.”

He said more resources will be given to the department of Education, which has been renamed Education, Social Welfare, Family Affairs and Culture.

He promised to invest in the devolved aspects of education, including Early Childhood Development Education, technical and vocational education training and youth polytechnics.

Needy students are to be supported through bursaries, while more teachers will be trained and hired.

Mr Abdullahi said his administration will establish a scheme of work for all county staff and base promotions on performance.

He said county staff will be deployed to work at the grassroots.

The local government will also issue title deeds to owners of 200 plots that were surveyed in Wajir town.

County Assembly Speaker Abdille Yusuf also called for unity between the executive and legislature to deliver on their agenda.

“We shall expect your administration and this House to be the bond that bonds the people of Wajir together and promote good governance by overseeing prudent [spending],” he said.

None of the MCAs from the last assembly was re-elected.

The county ranks third in the country in the amount of pending bills, the governor said.

He said “there are no corresponding resources in our county revenue accounts inherited from the predecessor government”.

He added that unremitted statutory deductions amount to over Sh1 billion, and recurrent expenditure takes up 40 percent of the budget against the statutory limit of 35 percent.

He said the past budget failed to meet the minimum of 30 percent for devolvement per the law.