Nyeri will spend Sh1.6bn to complete projects, says Kahiga

The county government of Nyeri plans to inject at least Sh1.6 billion to complete development projects across the eight sub-counties.

 The money expected to be spent over the remainder of the 2023-2024 financial year will be used to improve key infrastructure projects such as markets and completion of hospitals.

Governor Mutahi Kahiga while delivering his New Year address to residents of Nyeri said his administration will spend a substantial amount of the money to renovate milk processing plants and upgrade rural roads to enhance transit of agricultural products from farms to markets.

“From our county-specific projects, we will spend Sh1.6 billion in development. These range from the county industrial park, completion of Karatina hospital emergency block, various renovation works in all our hospitals, sports equipment, upgrading stadiums, completion of the Kairuthi milk plant, purchasing empowerment equipment, cabros, upgrade of town roads, purchase of disaster response equipment, equipping sanitation among many other projects,” he said.

“We have operationalised the Field Marshal Muthoni Kirima Bus Park, which should be fully occupied by the end of January. The Narumoru hospital has taken off albeit with staffing challenges. We will recruit 125 medical personnel to further boost the staffing. We are positive that we will be able to clear the pending issue of the valuation roll after setting up the valuation court that begins its sittings on January 8, 2024. This will allow all disputes to be resolved,” he added.

 According to figures from the office of the chief officer, economic planning and budgeting, the county spent a total of Sh89,248,853 to fund various development projects during the first quarter of the 2023-2024 financial year.

 At the same time, Sh1,092,421,717 was spent on recurrent expenditure.

Last year, Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang'o listed at least ten counties that had failed to allocate a single coin to development but ended up spending all their funds in financing recurrent expenditure.

The counties on the spot included Nairobi, Embu, Homa Bay, Kericho, Kilifi, Machakos, Samburu, Turkana, Wajir, and West Pokot.

 According to Nyakang’o, the said counties had diverted all the allocated funds to pay salaries and allowances and run operations while starving their people of crucial development projects such as roads, water, and health.

Kahiga lauded his staff and members of the Nyeri county assembly for their input in placing the county among the best-performing devolved units in the country.

 The county boss said this had seen the county not only named the best in terms of governance but also in terms of having the best crop of county lawmakers.

 And to prove the cordial working relationship between the executive and MCAs, Kahiga said a total of Sh735 million had been set aside to fund development projects in the wards.

 The county was also ranked top in terms of collection of own source revenue after it managed to raise Sh610,656,883 (76.3 percent) against a projection of Sh800,000,000 during this period.

“Our county has been rated high in several things. Nyeri was the best county in the HR Awards in governance. We, too, were leading in collection of own source revenue, not forgetting that we were also among the counties with high development expenditure, best road network, best in education, and the county with the lowest pending bills,” Kahiga said.