Chiefs 'barazas' (councils) could be reintroduced to make it easier for the government to communicate its projects and policies to the public.
Nyeri County Commissioner Pius Murugu said a communication lapse has left members of the public in the dark.
He said the information breakdown had led to the misconception devolved units were delivering more projects than the national government.
“I know many projects are being undertaken and people are unaware. So we need to revive the village councils to connect ourselves with the people,” said Murugu.
The government has recently been criticised for launching new projects without completing stalled ones. It has also been called out for wasting taxpayers’ money by paying contractors for non-existing or stalled projects.
Speaking when presiding over the monthly Nyeri County Implementation Coordination and Management Committee meeting, Murugu said the government had established a new model to monitor the progress of all its projects.
The national government administration officers will partner with heads of ministries, departments and agencies to supervise and appraise the projects.
They will also identify challenges which will be escalated to the implementing ministries. In addition, NGAOs and the heads of MDAs will be responsible for communicating national government programmes.
“This committee will monitor and ensure development projects progress seamlessly. From time to time, the NGAOs will contact departmental heads to communicate what the government is doing,” he stated.
“We shall have various meetings to track the projects. There are concerns many have stalled because even the NGAOs at the sub-county level could not report what was happening. That is why we are engaging them to appraise these projects,” said Murugu.
During the meeting, it emerged that in Nyeri, the government will monitor 324 projects at various levels of implementation. The committee heard that out of these, 37 have been allocated funds in the 2024/2025 financial year.
It was also reported that President William Ruto had launched nine projects since taking office. Two of these had already been budgeted for.
Additionally, the committee will also monitor the progress of some 287 legacy projects where a total of 19 have already been budgeted for.
The administrator called on department heads to ensure they appraised the projects correctly.
“It is important for us to have the actual status to allow the National Treasury to budget appropriately. We have several ‘stalled’ projects which have been reported as ‘ongoing’ which does not reflect the true picture on the ground. This also portrays the wrong image of government,” stated the County Commissioner.
