County News
Duale: Wajir County developing faster than Garissa and Mandera counties
NAIROBI—Garissa Township MP and Majority Leader in the National Assembly identified Wajir governor as the most performing in the region, saying his development record was tangible.
In an interview with Iftiin FM, Aden Barre Duale hailed devolution as success, but maintained that corruption was still rife.
He said corruption was rampant in counties than in national government departments. He blamed the judiciary for the soft response to tame the scourge.
“The biggest corruption scandals are in county governments. President Kenyatta is fighting corruption and those implicated have been sacked,” said Duale.
He stated that county governments receive enough funding to pull out of the ‘marginalised tag’, adding that county bosses were busy running after misplaced priorities.
On performance by county since devolution was adopted in 2013, Duale observed that Wajir County was on development course compared to Garissa and Mandera counties.
“Ahmed Abdullahi (Wajir governor) has performed way much better than his counterparts in Garissa and Mandera.
“He constructed a 28-KM of tarmac within Wajir town and he is relatively making devolution a success in more ways than we can imagine,” Duale said.
A motorcyclist ride along Manyalo Road in Wajir. PHOTO/ Abdikadir Okash
On Garissa-Wajir-Mandera highway, Duale said plans were underway to tarmac the road.
However, he did not give the specifics of how far the project to tarmac the highway has reached.
The question of tarmacking the road re-emerged last week after Kulan Post broke the story of how President Uhuru Kenyatta commissioned the construction, or the upgrading of 15 roads and highways in Central Kenya since the 15th of March this year.
The Garissa township MP similarly touched on the issue of security in North Eastern Kenya, saying it significanly improved after the president implemented a suugestion by the Somali leaders to have local police officers in the region.
“No major insecurity incident was reported in North Eastern Kenya since Garissa University attack because we deployed locals who understand the region, culture and the language to address the run-away insecurity,” Duale said. He credited the prevailing security in the region on Ambassador Mohamed Salah.
