Year: 2018

The Nkokirdinga Step Hill Road in Keekonyokie Road is now ready for use by the public after Governor Joseph Ole Lenku was joined by Keekonyokie Ward MCA Saoyo Kusero, Chief Officer roads Koinari Tutui and county engineers to commission during the site visit of the 5km road which will open up Nkokirdinga as well as ease access to Nkokirdinga Primary School.”My administration is keen on opening up rural areas to improve accessibility and promote trade,” Governor Lenku said.

MCA Saoyo said he was grateful at the speed the road was constructed and promised to work with the Governor to release more development for the Ward.

The road is part of Kajiado County Government’s road works for this Financial Year.

SPEECH BY H.E. JOSEPH OLE LENKU, GOVERNOR, COUNTY GOVERNMENT OF KAJIADO, DURING THE JAMHURI DAY CELEBRATIONS ON DECEMBER 12, 2018, AT NGONG STADIUM:

Our County Commissioner, Mr Kipkemei,
Our Hon. Members of Parliament;
Hon. Speaker of our County Assembly;
Hon. Members of the County Assembly;
Our officers of the County Executive Committee & County Public Service Board;
The great & respected people of Kajiado;
Ladies and Gentlemen:

Today, more than 55 years since our country threw off the chains of colonialism and created our great Republic, we have come here as a free people. A people free to celebrate and commemorate this remarkable achievement by the founding fathers of our Republic; a free people in a free Kenya and, indeed, a very free Kajiado.
Friends: It is the unrelenting spirit of our freedom struggle which produced our Republic that we commemorate and rededicate ourselves to today. This is the spirit which has given us the perpetual urge to fight for freedom and victory over grinding poverty, crippling diseases and rampant unemployment; it is the same spirit that has kept us determined to transform our lives, governance and economy.
It is this same spirit which affirms that our journey towards a good and prosperous life, towards a highly developed Kajiado, has not always been easy. The road has neither been straight nor easy. However, inspired by the struggle of the heroes and heroines of our independence struggle, we, too, will keep going; we will keep trying; and do so because it is said that defeat is only for those who stop trying!
I am extremely glad for the various courageous warriors of development who have, willingly, joined me in this arduous journey of developing our county. Our area MP, Hon Joseph Manje, is for sure, a giant who never tires in helping our people; our members of the County Assembly from this region and others, you are great and honorable leaders!

My dear brethren: The freedom, for which our independence leaders paid the ultimate price to realize, makes our county what it is today – a free land and a home to everybody!

Ours, especially here in Kajiado North, is a socially vibrant, multi-ethnic and cosmopolitan county, a Kenya ndogo of sorts. We are all here – the Maasai, Kikuyu, Kisii, Akamba, Luhya, Luo and therest of Kenyans – together and united as residents of Kajiado. Indeed, we are the face of Kenya!

This is the kind of unity which strengthened the resolve of our founding fathers to build a nation out of multiple classes, ethnicities and races. Out of many, became one; we became one united nation of Kenya.

This is the same unity which continues to-date to inspire confidence in us in order to keep moving forward no matter what; this is the unity that I, relentlessly, preach and stand for as your Governor!

My Cabinet, from the beginning of my time as governor, bespeaks of this unity by bringing together people from different communities and political affiliations.

Ladies and gentlemen: We all live here because of the promise that this Pastoral Paradise, Kajiado County, offers. A promise of a place to call home in a country where land sizes are shrinking; a promise of raising up our families and giving them a good life; a promise of a blissful countryside and thriving town; a promise which we really cherish and relish as the people of Kajiado.

It is in this connection of raising up our families, therefore, that I want, from the deepest depth of my heart, to wish our standard 8 children, whose examination results came out recently, Godspeed in their secondary school education and training.

May God, the Almighty, continue to shine His countenance on the faces of these little angels; may He grant it that they all be selected to various secondary schools of their choice. Those yet to know their fate, we will work tirelessly, day and night, to make sure they go to school; Our County Government has an elaborate bursary scheme that will come in to assist those that face fees challenges.

Talking of the opportunities for a home that Kajiado offers, here, Kajiado North, is home for me too. I have a very personal attachment and extremely fond memories of this place. While I was born in Oloitokitok, it is here, in neighboring Nkaimurunya Ward, that I have lived for all of my adult life. I started my family here; all my children were born here in Kajiado North! I still have visible traces of my life in this area; my dear friends, I am, simply, one of you! That is why I insisted that this year’s Jamhuri celebrations in Kajiado North, my home!

Friends, I am here to appreciate you, my fellow home mates, for your unwavering support during my campaigns for governor.

There are many of you seated here today, with whom we spent many days together during the campaigns; there are many of you here who walked with me every step of the way until we achieved victory; there are many of you who chose to have faith in me and my leadership from the word go.

I owe it all to you guys! My vow, brethren, still remains – I will serve you; I will remain your safe pair of hands in times of need; in times of difficulties! As our independence heroes and heroines made Kenya a safe haven for all of us, I will make Kajiado a safe haven for you and your families to thrive! We are a free people whose lives are improving every day, we are ripe for prosperity, and ready to build a strong future for our children.

I will do all I can to preserve that freedom and walk with you until we have achieved our development goals.
Ladies and gentlemen: For too long our county has been plagued by water problems and our towns are suffering from the stench of garbage. Water shortage and non-functional or non-existence sewerage disposal system is our utmost challenge. This is a challenge which we must confront. I repeat, we must confront! It cannot, must not and will not wait a day more!

That is why I want today to speak frankly and directly about this menace. We appreciate that as opportunities abound in our county, so do our challenges. Kajiado serves Nairobi, our nation’s capital, as a bedroom extension.

Indeed, we are the backbone of our capital’s economic success and as such numberless workers in the city live and do business here. This has overstretched our water and sewerage systems.

However, because of the ongoing efforts of my Government our urban centres are headed for renewal. Our Ngong and Kajiado municipalities are now a reality. Two days ago, our Municipal Management Boards were sworn into office after approval by our County Assembly last week. I thank our Speaker Mheshimiwa Osoi and our MCAs for approving all the nominees and thus accelerating the operationalization of our municipalities.

These boards are critical in seeking resources from the World Bank and other international donor agencies to finance capital projects on areas of infrastructure, water and sewerage systems. I urge them to quickly settle into their office and make the fixing of our sewerage systems a priority.

We have increased our efforts, particularly, in water supply. A few weeks back, as you may be aware, we declared sale of salty water in our county illegal. This is primarily to protect our people’s health. My administration has already taken up the implementation of this directive. We have started to construct boreholes properly fitted with desalination facilities to increase the supply of fresh water for domestic, public and animal consumption. The first of such boreholes is in Kitengela.
As we drill new freshwater boreholes, my Government has embarked on mapping out the already existing salty water boreholes to be immediately fitted with desalination equipment.

Friends: It goes without saying that this venture of desalinating our boreholes will require heavy capital investment and deployment beyond my Government’s fiscal capacity. Alone we cannot manage to do much. We call upon our development partners in the fields of health, water, sanitation and finance to join us to run this invaluable programme. We cannot afford to wait another day! The impact of salt to our health and that of our children cannot afford us the luxury of sitting on the fence on this one.

As we desalinate our boreholes, I am extremely, concerned with the rampant, not least the very reckless, disposal of waste and raw sewerage to the public spaces, roads and walkways. This is as much a gross violation of our health rights as it is a total disregard to our environmental and public health regulations.
The poor sewerage disposal is a challenge we are all facing – rich and poor; young and old;across the breadth and width of our county urban centres. I know that even if you can argue that you are not affected by this menace in our public spaces, you know someone who is – a child who has missed school because of a cholera attack emanating from raw sewerage; a neighbor who can seldom leave the house for being confined by the chocking stench of sewer effluence;
Or even a shopkeeper or kiosk owner who has lost all his livelihood because of sewage water outside his shop!
Therefore, we must do what is necessary to fix this problem! We have to get it right this time round; we have to do it! We have to and we are determined to find a lasting solution to this problem. For example, our efforts are directed towards the decommissioning the dumpsite here at Ngong.

The Kajiado Integrated Solid Waste Management funding has been approved by the Italian Government. Together with our National Treasury, we are now moving to the last stage of signing the financing agreement by the two governments. The tendering process to decommission this dumpsite will commence in a few months. The residents of Ngong will soon have this menace removed from their lives!

My friends: I will now talk about land. I have been concerned by the rampant cases of land fraud. Many families are embroiled in endless court disputes over land simply because unscrupulous people have devised cunning ways to falsify documents.

I will not watch as genuine investors in Kajiado County are conned of the lands they have rightfully bought through the principle of willing buyer/willing seller. My administration will protect all those who buy land genuinely and will support those who have found our County to be worthy as their new home. I urge all people with land cases to try arbitration and seek the assistance of our County Land Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee. Together, we will safeguard our land and ensure that investments are secure so that our county can grow.

Ladies and gentlemen: As we move to transform our county we have put a number of projects in place. Many roads are under construction, particularly here in Kajiado North; universal healthcare under Mbuzi Moja, Afya Bora has been enthusiastically received by our people; programmes to grow and preserve hay to feed our livestock during the dry season are already in place as well as efforts to create access to markets for our agricultural produce.
All these changes and many more that I cannot mention here directly speak of our resilience as Kenya. Every time we are faced by challenges, we rise up to the occasion to sort them out. Over a half a century ago, when we were faced with imperial oppression, we beat the British in their game of domination;
when ignorance assailed the breadth and width of our society, we set ourselves on the path of educating our people and produced the most educated people in Africa; and more recently, when we were faced by the threat of tearing apart our nation, during the 2007/08 post-election violence, we quickly agreed to set aside our differences and put our country back together again!

That’s indeed why I am more optimistic for our nation, Kenya and county, now than ever before. Our President, His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta, and his government has relentlessly supported us and developmental projects. Recently, he chose to celebrate next year’s National Madaraka Day Celebrations in our county headquarters, Kajiado town! We welcome you all and other Kenyans in advance for next year’s Madaraka Day celebrations.
Therefore, friends, as I stand here and look to months and years ahead, I see a future that is brighter. There are good and prosperous times ahead. The hatred on political party lines which dominated our social atmosphere up to recently is now behind us and in this post-handshake era; our ethnic differences which for so long and in so many ways pitted us against one another are, increasingly, becoming history; and the days of opposing government only to win political mileage are verily, verily, bygones!
And now, friends, ladies and gentlemen, in one unwavering accord and resolute, let us join hands together to develop Kenya; let us join hands together to develop our great county of Kajiado.

I wish you all a happy Christmas and a prosperous new year.
Thank you and God bless you all abundantly!

H.E. Joseph Ole Lenku
Governor, Kajiado County

The County Government through H.E the Governor has launched a series of projects among them the Kitengela bus park, the deliverance road that leads to the railway and soon to follow the Saitoti road. The cabinet at the national level has also approved the construction of a modern railway station in Kitengela.

The continued partnership with the national government has realized fruits in our development agenda. Kajiado County is gradually becoming an anchor in business, culture and a hub of prosperity.

H.E the Governor urges all of us to put petty politics aside and work together to move this great County towards where we envision it.

1^ST Annual Amboseli Safari Festival was officially launched by H.E Governor Joseph Ole Lenku at an event attended by sponsors of this year festival, dignitaries and members of the press.

This year’s event is about a charity cycling competition from Namanga to Amboseli Meshenani gate. Its aim is to improve housing standards among the rural Maasai communities from Kajiado County through Eco–Manyatta housing, an initiative of first lady Kajiado County.

Speaking during the event, Kajiado County First Lady H.E Edna Lenku thanked all the participants of the event for their commitment as it is an inspiration to the course that began today. She added that “As the First Lady of Kajiado County, I champion a THREE Point Agenda in the areas of Education Mentorship, Health Education and Environmental Conservation.

The pursuit for the THREE POINT plan is out of the need to sensitize our people on alternative means of livelihood and to make them more aware of the means to adapt to a changing environment and new realities that have caught up with our cultural practices”. She added that “The Amboseli Safari Festival is an idea borne out of an aim to collectively mobilize resources and partner towards a course that is largely centered on the most current and urgent needs of the people of this County and that is housing.

A mother who has spent years cooking with firewood, persevered the smoke and used paraffin lambs all her life will have the rare opportunity of living in a modern Eco Manyatta because you registered to cycle.A young man in the remotest villages of this county with no employment will have a chance of making some money out of his own sweat by making bricks to be used in building the Eco Manyatta.

On the other hand Governor Lenku also thanked all sponsors who heeded the call to support the first Lady in her project and invited everyone to Amboseli on 8th December 2018.

Jonah Orumoi managing director Tourism Finance Corporation who spoke during the event on behalf of corporate sponsors.”Tourism is one of the fastest growing economic sectors in Kenya contributing significantly to our GDP growth while boosting the country’s foreign exchange earning” he said. He added that “it is indeed another great moment to join other corporates as we support Amboseli Safari Festival to promote local tourism especially Amboseli National park as well as placing Kajiado County on international map.

This year’s event will officially start on 8th December 2018 with flagging off cyclists from Namanga shell petrol station at 8:00 am. There shall be other field activities during the day including javelin, spear shooting, and culmination of the event with a whole evening traditional music festival including goat eating with morans and campaign.

H.E President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Tanzanian counterpart. H.E President John Magufuli visited Namanga border point to launch the Namanga One Stop Border Post (OSBP). The OSBP will facilitate ease of movement for goods and people between the two nations. The Namanga One Stop Border Post will be manned by customs and immigration officials from both Kenya and Tanzania. The OSBP aims at enhancing the Economic, Social and Political integration of the East African Community #NamangaOSBP

This will enhance movement of goods and people and boost economic and social enterprises. Kajiado County will be a big beneficiary of this new development and it expects fair trading practices that are beneficial to citizens of both countries.

Residents of Kajiado County joined the world in commemorating the World AIDS Day in Loitoktok town, Kajiado South.Data from the county shows decreasing HIV prevalence rates; has reduced from 4.4% to 3.9% even though it still remains a serious public health challenge. According to HIV estimates released early this month Kajiado County main spread of HIV is high population, livestock traders and horticultural farmers.

Speaking during the commemoration Deputy Governor Martin Moshisho said a lot still needs to be done. “The HIV and AIDS pandemic rates stands at 3.9% which is still high. Our government has allocated resources for mobilization towards HIV and AIDS interventions aimed at reducing the spread of this disease” said Moshisho. He urged men to lead by example and be tested for HIV and AIDS.”I am calling upon every one and especially men to take the lead and get tested for HIV in line with this year World AIDS day theme. I want to thank the National AIDS Control Council and our partners who have stood with us in this endeavor as we strive to get zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS related deaths as we save our future” added Moshisho.

CECM Health Esther Somoire added that as a ministry, precedence has been given towards awareness creation and resources allocation for mobilization in the fight against the disease.”Kajiado County HIV infected individuals has gone up from 21,000 to 24,870. The number will keep increasing and placing continuing demands on health and social services systems. We will do a lot of mobilization as we continue to spread this message to all our people in rural and urban areas” said Somoire.

Ms Angeline Siparo NACC Chairperson said AIDS still remains one of the biggest public health challenge.”The National prevalence rates has also dropped from 5.6% to 4.9%, whereas we have made progress.HIV and AIDS still remains one of the biggest public health challenge of our times. I want to thank the county governments whose leadership have taken charge of HIV services and programs to ensure no one is left behind. We applaud them for their partnership.” Said Angeline.

The Deputy Governor and the CEC Health also issued certificates to mothers and children who graduated from the HIV Exposed Infanta (HEI) program; children borne of mothers living with HIV but have tested negative for the HIV virus. They took special recognition to the community support groups for people living with HIV/AIDS.

H.E the Governor has launched a developmental affirmative action, for Mosiro ward, one of the most marginalized wards in the County.
In an elaborate tour with his senior county officials, Governor Lenku said never again will Mosiro Ward be abandoned the way it has been by past regimes.” You are part of Kajiado County. You shall not weep again for the developmental discrimination you have suffered. I have a special focus on the very rural areas which have not seen any tangible development in the past,” said Governor Lenku at a public rally in Mosiro town.
Before the rally, H.E the Governor commissioned the Emparbal water project where hundreds of local residents will now be drawing clean and fresh water.
Together with Medical Services Chief Officer, Jacob Sampeke, the Governor also inspected Mosiro Dispensary which attends to 20 patients daily as well as being the only health facility that offers maternity services in the Ward.
Accompanied by Chief Officers Douglas Konana (Water) and Leakey Ritei (Agriculture), the Governor inspected the ongoing construction of Mosiro Irrigation Scheme. The project with a capacity of 28 Million liters will be constructed at a cost of Ksh 30 Million. It is expected to be complete by June next year. “Under my Watch, Mosiro will never be discriminated against the way it has been. The irrigation scheme will greatly boost food security for these residents,” he said. The Governor also stated that the people of Emparbal can now draw clean and fresh water for the first time from the county’s water project.
“As an Affirmative Action on local youth, I have directed that Mosiro must have at least 50 youths in the next intake of the on-going County Vocational Skills Training Programme,” the Governor added.
The day long tour also saw area MCA Peter Tirishe hail the Governor for pledging to consider more local sons and daughters for county jobs.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING

BURSARY BENEFICIARIES LIST

The second cycle of bursary disbursement of the year 2017/2018 has been completed.You may view the beneficiary list as per institution by clicking media then publication then bursary beneficiary list.

The dream to construct one of Kenya’s most modern retail markets in Kajiado County nears reality.Top officials of the Nairobi Metropolitan Services Improvement Project (NAMSIP) handed over the new site to the contractor, China Tiancheng Construction Company  in a function attended by the Deputy Governor, Martin Moshisho.

The 4-storey ultra-modern market will house 2,300 traders and its construction will now begin.The relocation site is the first phase of the project and will cost Ksh 60 Million.It will be completed in the next six weeks.

The County’s Department of Trade has managed to unclog the standoff between traders and the County Government that almost frustrated efforts to have a new complex market which is expected to be the biggest in East and Central Africa.

During the launch, H.E Moshisho thanked the Ngong market traders for their commitment that saw them agree to shift in January to their temporary new market site under construction.”We shall give priority to the traders who were already there and the youth for whom we want to create self-employment job opportunities,” said the Deputy Governor.

The Ngong Market is one of the three multi-million markets NAMSIP wants to construct in Kajiado County.The others are Ole Kasasi and Kitengela.

NAMSIP Deputy Director Peter Mwaura confessed that the project almost collapsed due to traders grievances but thanked Governor Joseph Ole Lenku for intervening and whipping the traders in accepting to embrace the projects.

On several occasions, Trade and Investments Chief Officer Grace Saitoti held a series of meetings with the traders to hammer out all the pending issues.

Ngong MCA Robert Sungura assured the World Bank that the project had full support of the traders.