Editorial: The Uasin Gishu We Want

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Today my heart is with the people of Uasin Gishu County. We all know what is happening in our County,we can’t bury our heads in sand like the proverbial ostrich ,but let us not engage in unproductive politics that will devour our County development.

Impeachment or recall is not the solution. It will not and will never help if we do not join hands with the leaders we have and respect them.

If we need development we should be cognisant to the reality that change begins with you and me , to work together with our leaders in  making ideas and generating solutions that will move our county forward.

Our Governor Jackson Mandago Senator Isaac Melly,County Woman MP Eusilah Jepkosgei , County Assembly Speaker Isaac Terer , Our six members of parliament; Edwin Barchilei(Soy) Oscar sudy(Kapseret) Elisha Busienei(Turbo) Silas Tiren(Moiben) James Bett(Kesses) Samwel Chepkonga(Ainabkoi) and all our 44 honourable Members of County Assembly this is my message to you:

We the flock elected you as our herdsmen , who are now spearheading the County Development Agenda, it goes without saying that you have inherited a County Government that was in turmoil, but as our herdsmen you should rise up to the occasion.

Uasin Gishu has a robust potential for growth. In line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Kenya Vision 2030 flagship of poverty eradication and dignity for human life, the focus of this shared vision is to get the people of Uasin Gishu County to work together towards the creation of an enabling environment for investment, employment, productivity, economic development and environmental management for better livelihoods.

Vision 2030 flagship is a development blueprint that seeks to transform Kenya into an industrializing, middle-income country providing a high quality life to all its citizens by the year 2030.It comprises three pillars: economic, social and political.

I am going to focus on four fundamental problems and outline their status its objectives being: To promote a stable and sustained economic growth by diversifying and improving agricultural productivity, marketing and value addition; supporting the expansion of industries to create more employment opportunities and also provide quality and affordable products; and creating a conducive environment for businesses and services and to attract investors, to build a just and cohesive society with social equity in a clean and secure environment by providing infrastructural support to enhance the provision of education, health, sports and social cultural activities; empowering women and youth to participate in decision-making; and promoting multiculturalism, to institute
and maintain a democratic system founded on issue-based politics that respects the rule of law, and protects the rights and freedoms of every individual through initiatives to keep the electorate informed on their rights and responsibilities.

The education sector in our County is in a bewildering predicament, resources need to be marshaled in the learning facilities available, stagnated academic excellence is attributed to poor management, understaffing, poor facilities ,high levels of poverty and lack of motivation.Investing in education is paramount so that we can reduce illiteracy pandemic.

Infrastructure is also a key development pillar. The total classified road network within Uasin-Gishu covers a distance iof 328.5 km, with 53% being earth surface, 14% being murram and 33% being tarmac surface.

The most common means of transportation in the County is by road. It can be seen from the analysis above that more than half of road network is earth and this means that accessibility to and from many places becomes a big challenge during the rainy season.

There is therefore need for a better road network in order to enhance access and improve trade and enhance economic development. For instance, the potential of Eldoret International Airport is yet to be optimally exploited, majority of our roads are impassable not because there are no allocations from the Central Government, no,
not at all, its because funds intended for construction and maintenance end up in individual pockets channeled through white elephant projects.

Agriculture is also the economic pillar in this county, it depends on availability of resources and reliability of rainfall and thus reasons for fluctuations. With improved management of this sector, full potential can be exploited.

One of the challenges that need to be addressed is the low staffing resulting in an imbalanced ratio of agricultural officers to farmers who provide invaluable information badly needed by our farmers, high tariffs on farm inputs which do not tally with revenue proceeds realized continue to squarely blow our unrelenting farmers.

Finally, Sports has become one of the leading youth development pillars and has seen various investments from proceeds of athletics especially commercial buildings and residential places in urban sections. School tournaments have enabled identification and the nurturing of talented young people in athletics, ball games, music and cultural heritage.

This sector faces myriad challenges that include lack of designated training places, equipment, exposure and organization, much energy has been focused on building and upgrading centers of academic excellence out-rightly segregating sports.We also need to build centers of sports excellence in order to provide an equivocal playing ground to both academic and sports elites.

Our leaders need to also come up with a comprehensive overhaul plan that will change and transform our county for the better.

That said and done, their commitment and consistency in their noble vision to soar and conviction to reform lies in fixing the gaps and filling the loopholes, they must implore their creative faculties to devise strategies that are best propelled within their contextual realities for true change to occur, that, to say the least, is the best way of addressing those
challenges, if we are fed with healthy and balanced county by-legislations, if we are de-wormed by stamping out progression impediments; tithing corruption, insecurity, institutionalized impunity and bureaucracy, if we are provided with proper grazing fields free from rocks and thorns, fields abundant with resources inform of grants or loans to able men and women, provision of quality and accessible healthcare, subsidies to farm inputs by the county government, to mention but a few, is what will drive our county to unprecedented economic and social levels.

Most importantly, if everyone does his/her job and nothing is left for granted, I believe this cow, in the name of socio-economic empowerment, will not refuse. That is the Uasin Gishu we want.

The writer Kibet Koinei is a practising Journalist