Outgoing Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago said President Uhuru Kenyatta never honoured any of his invitations to visit the county during his tenure.
Mandago, who is now the Senator-elect for the county, says he sent out several invitations to the President to visit Uasin Gishu for development activities but Uhuru snubbed all the invitations.
He explained on Wednesday that he had lined up several projects which he wanted the President to launch but to his disappointment Uhuru never responded.
Mandago, who completed his term yesterday and handed over to his successor Jonathan Bii, says he is however grateful that President-elect William Ruto is from Uasin Gishu. He said Ruto will visit the county frequently officially and on his way home.
“Thank you, residents of Uasin Gishu for helping us elect the fifth president who is a citizen of this county. I tried so many times to invite my friend Uhuru to come to county headquarters but he never came," Mandago said.
He said he had confidence Ruto would eventually be sworn in as president and that the county stands to benefit immensely from him just like other parts of the country.
Mandago was speaking during a send off event at the county headquarters in Eldoret before the swearing in of Bii, popularly known as Koti Moja, as the second governor of the county.
He thanked his staff for the support they had given him for 10 years.
“I particularly single out my deputy Daniel Chemno for the brotherly support he gave me. We have achieved a lot by working together,” Mandago said.
He noted gains made in the education sector for the youth in and also commended the governments for implementing the new curriculum development programme, CBC ,which he said would be useful to the country.
Mandago wants parents to fully adopt CBC and work with the government to improve it.
“Those people who are against the CBC and are parents should embrace it; if your child is doing the programme try to compare him with those who never did, the ones doing it will be more skilled and innovative,"he said.
He also cited his achievements, including taking youth abroad for training and job opportunities.
“The reason why we take our children to Finland is actually because it's same as a CBC programme. The training out there is more practical just like what the CBC is for us here in Kenya,” he said.
While appreciating all the departments for what he termed as the good work they have done for the county, he urged them to fully support the incoming governor.
He also praised residents for maintaining peace during the elections but criticised those who tagged the county as hotspot.
“We have proved them wrong by remaining peaceful and we hope to maintain the same going forward,”Mandago said.
(Edited by V. Graham)
