ISAAC MWAURA: Government gives tangible benefits to Central Kenya

 BY ISAAC MWAURA

It’s exactly one year today since my office was reestablished at the Executive office of the President!

In this regard, we have been touring the central Kenya counties to highlight the key government programmes undertaken for the last two years under the Kenya Kwanza administration.

To say the least, a lot has been done so far as witnessed in our visits to Kariminu II Dam, Kirigiti stadium, and the affordable housing project in Ruiru town.

My team also visited the Maragua Water Works and the Makenji Affordable Housing Project in Nguthuru, Murang’a county, and projects in Kirinyaga.  

There are 14 AHP active sites within the Central region’s five counties, all at various stages of completion and promise profound socio-economic impact.

The projects comprise 7,628 affordable housing units, employing an average of 2,130 daily workers on site, with an additional 5,000 skilled and low-skilled workers engaged, directly and indirectly, off-site across the housing economic value chain in the region.

The State Department for Housing and Urban Development and the National Housing Corporation (NHC) have ring-fenced Sh1.135 billion for the Jua Kali and MSMEs in this region to produce steel doors, steel windows, wooden doors, joinery and balustrades, as well as landscaping for these 14 projects.

This money will go a long way to engage the youth in skilled, semi- and unskilled employment while formalising the Jua Kali clusters across the five counties towards the up-skilling of artisans, and cottage industrial development.

For example, the Ruiru bypass fabricators have been given a contract worth Sh107 million to supply doors, windows and grills at the 1,050-unit affordable housing project in Ruiru town.

This has been a great game changer for them, now that they are able to boost their livelihoods greatly.

There are others too, such as Molenje, a single mother who sells food at the site. She tells us of how she wants to own a one bedroom house at the site, now that she has seen the benefits of making an income from there.

Rent of about Sh5,000 will help her acquire a studio (bedsitter) apartment for herself and her child.

There are many Molenjes across the 14 AHP projects in central Kenya, including two in Kirinyaga county, two in Nyeri, three in Nyandarua, and one in Murang’a ⸻ Makenji with 220 units. My home county of Kiambu is slowly becoming a city adjacent to the capital city.

People are moving away from cash crop farming, to growing houses on their rather expensive pieces of land.

As a result, many a poor people can’t afford housing, and that is why the government has six AHP sites namely, Ruiru AHP (1,050 units), Thika AHP-Kings Orchid, Thika Depot AHP, Thika Bustani AHP, Kikuyu Kabete AHP and the Limuru AHP.

You can imagine the number of jobs that have been created so far by the AHP sites across the counties. It is estimated that more than 109,000 units are at different stages of construction, with the Makenji project, for example, expected to be complete by March 2025.

More than 160,000 Kenyans are earning a livelihood from projects, making this initiative one of the biggest employers in government, second to the Teachers Service Commission.

Attachment and internship opportunities for the neighboring learning institutions ⸻ over and above social and physical infrastructure improvements on amenities such as schools, markets and dispensaries are improving the living conditions of residents.

Julia Wanjiru is full of praise of the gains that she has realised out of these housing projects. Born in Taita Taveta county, Wanjiru has found a renewed purpose, balancing between manual labour and food sales.  She has since managed to educate her children single-handedly.

"This project has kept us all busy. No one is idle or going hungry," she says, referring to the accrued benefits of the project in her new-found home of Ruiru town in Kiambu county.

The workers at the various sites have also been organised into Saccos to save their incomes for investments.

Water is life, and Government is committed to providing universal access to water for all, and securing quality sanitation services through infrastructure development and capacity building.

To this end, the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Sanitation has enhanced the level of National Water Coverage from 70 percent in 2022 to 73 percent in 2024.

 The increase has impacted more than five million additional people who now have guaranteed access to clean and safe water across the country. 

Central Region is mainly served by the Tana and Athi agencies that have invested heavily in the subsector, mainly by providing dams and boreholes for water harvesting for domestic use and irrigation.

The Kariminu Dam in Kiambu county supplies more than 65,000 cubic metres of water a day, serving more than one million people in Ruiru, Juja, Gatundu and Nairobi counties.

James Kiriti, the head teacher of Buchana Primary School and Early Childhood Development Centre gives credit to the dam for the transformation of the school.

He says the classrooms used to be an eyesore with mud walls and earthen floors.

As part of Corporate Social Responsibility project by the dam builders, the school has since been transformed into a modern facility of international acclaim.

The Maragua Bulk water project has a storage capacity of eight million cubic metres with a water treatment plant capacity of 8,000 cubic metres per day.

 The installation serves 16 schools, two industries, 10 health institutions and a general population of about 50,000 people.

 It supplies domestic water at 4,000 cubic metres a day. It also supplies water for irrigation to Kambiti, Kamahuha and Nginda wards.

In addition, the Northern Collector Water Tunnel has benefited more than 1.2 million people in Kiambu, Murang’a and Kajiado, and Nairobi counties.  

Other water projects in this region include 14 completed water and sanitation interventions in Kirinyaga, seven learning institutions, three health facilities and 350,000 households. They are Kirinyaga-Kutus Water Supply Project, Kerugoya County Referral Hospital Water supply, and the Kianyaga High School borehole, among others.

In total, the government has increased the number of connections to sanitation and sewerage services from 27 percent in 2022 to 33 percent in 2024, impacting more than 280,000 households nationally.

The government remains committed to the BETA objectives of eradicating hunger, growing the economy and achieving inclusive growth in the spirit of leaving no one behind in all sectors of our economy and across all counties in Kenya.

The central Kenya tour titled #GoKSpoxMashinani continues.