Governor Werar’s efforts on climate change poised to be lauded in this year’s Devolution Conference

NAIROBI—Wajir governor Ahmed Ali Mukhtar will be making his debut in the Seventh Annual Devolution Conference in Makueni from the 23rd to 26th November. Over 1,000 guest are set to attend the get-together including President Uhuru Kenyatta and former premier, Raila Odinga.

Governor Werar is particularly going to attract attention from the guests for two reasons: he’s the newest entrant after he replaced his boss mid this year, and has streamlined the efforts to mitigate the adverse effect of climate change by clearing of over 75m in pending bills for the climate adaptation fund to 33 vendors and contractors.

This year’s theme is “Multi–level governance for climate action” and Governor Werar is poised to be applauded for the move to support efforts to help the people of Wajir County deal with the climate change and the payment of the 14m disability fund to 208 households.

To understand what the new administration has achieved since it was sworn-in to office, we have compiled this special report.

Governor Werar inspecting medical equipment at the Wajir Referral Hospital days after he assumed office.

In the health sector, substantial progress has been made in upgrading the power supply that supports the oxygen plant and radiology departments.

From the first day, Governor Werar identified Health as a priority sector. Engagements with the department started immediately the governor took office since it was one area adversely mentioned in the impeachment articles against the former governor/.
As a result, the notable achievements in the sector include:
❖ A quick fix emergency measure was put in place at a budget of 34M of which
emergency referral services was allocated 5.6M, 5M for reagents and 2M for
other emergencies
❖ The pending bill of 43M for drugs and pharmaceuticals has been cleared, as a
result, drugs and other pharmaceuticals have been received and distributed to
health facilities all over the county.
❖ Visited Griftu SC hospital, Habaswein SC hospital, Ademasajida HC, Barmil
Dispensary and Eldas SC hospital to asses and address issues of service
delivery
❖ Resolved the strike by the health sector workers and the promotion of 365
workers was effected in the pay roll. The highest number ever to be promoted
since the inception of devolved governance.
❖ Health care financing of two quarters was given to all hospitals which had not
been received for a while.
❖ Control panel was installed to resolve power problems at the county referral
hospital at a cost of 10M and it was upgraded to 1000KVA which has resolved
90% of the power problems.
❖ Adequate supply of oxygen supplies and the director gets daily update on the
number of cylinders on use.
❖ A new compressor and dryer delivered to replace the faulty ones for the
oxygen plant that is expected to produce high yield of quality oxygen vital for
ICU and other facilities in our hospital especially during this third wave of
COVID-19 pandemic
❖ PCR Covid machine operationalized.
❖ Renal supplies have fully operationalised the renal unit.

❖ The governor’s visits to the department boosted health workers morale and
motivation.
❖ 8 doctors have been employed and are serving the Wajir County Referral
Hospital.
❖ Drafted a supplementary budget to take care of referral emergency issues.
❖ Conducted stakeholders meeting involving the County Public Service Board,
the department and the Governor to address human resource issues,
promotions, HR gaps and rationalization.
❖ A bill of 1.2M has been cleared to operationalize fully fledged ambulance with
the required apparatus.
❖ Have launched biometric registration of 21, 568 indigents households for
UHC in partnership with NHIF. We pledged to top the numbers by 1500
households and the MP Wajir North will also sponsor 1000 households
through CDF.
❖ All this has been implemented in the 4th quarter of the Financial Year which
makes the achievements too impressive considering the lack of funds during
such time.

In the water sector, the government has invested in maintenance and refurbishment of dilapidated water supply systems. Some of the notable achievements are procurement and supply of 14 generator sets to different settlements across the 6 sub counties. The department also procured, supplied and delivered assorted fast moving borehole items for repair and maintenance of the existing boreholes across the county.

In the last two month, governor Werar unveiled water projects in Dadajabula, several locations in Tarbaj Constituency, Bute and Korondile.

❖ Procured, supplied and delivered 14 generator sets to different settlements
across the 6 sub counties.
❖ Procured, supplied and delivered assorted fast moving borehole items for
repair and maintenance of the existing boreholes across the county. These
items include PVC pipes, pumps, motors, drop cables, tanks, adaptors &
borehole covers worth Kshs 43 million
❖ Procured, supplied and delivered collapsible tanks for drought mitigation.
❖ Repaired and serviced several water bowsers for the department.
❖ Serviced, repaired and restored several existing borehole breakdowns and
commissioned new ones.
 

 WAJWASCO

❖ Governor helped in executing land consent form which was signed by the
community of Wajir south which was a condition to the release of 146M by the
national treasury.
❖ Trained the senior management including the board on corporate governance.

❖ There is renewed impetus to push for the passing of the water bill that is at
the County Assembly.

Revenue Department

❖ Own Source Revenue rose by KES 6. 4 Million up from KES 60.1 Million by close
of 2021/22 financial year.
❖ Published the Finance Bill 2020 for processing by the assembly to enhance
revenue collection.
❖ Have had stakeholder consultations on Revenue Administration Bill; Trade
Licensing Bill; and Land Valuation Bill with support from Commission Revenue
Allocation (CRA) that offered generic bills to the counties.
Procurement
❖ Redeployed all procurement staff in the departments for efficiency and effective
services
❖ Enforcement of the public procurement and assets disposal Act together with all
the regulations to the letter.
❖ Ambulance fuel to be ringfenced by issuing Authority to incur expenditure to the
department for independent procurement.
❖ County and Sub-County hospitals have been given authority to incur expenditure
to allow for procurement of fuel and other essentials.
❖ Procurement of 5 additional ambulances by the World Bank- KDSP program and
3 by the county to be fast tracked immediately the budgetary resources become
available.
❖ Rehabilitation and overhaul of 13 grounded ambulances has been processed
awaiting budgetary resources.

Department of Education, Youth, Gender, culture
and Social Service

❖ Supply and delivery of foodstuff to 8 Special Needs Schools /Orphanage Centers
within Wajir town amounting to Kes 13,000,000 million.
❖ In collaboration with the Kenya Red Cross Society, provided starter kits worth
2.4m for all the Vocational Training Centers graduates. 161 beneficiaries from
Plumbing, tailoring, Welding, electrical, Hairdressing and saloon and masonry
students benefited.
❖ Launching and disbursement of cash transferred fund worth 14m for person with
severe disabilities across the county. There were 208 beneficiaries that benefitted
from the kitty.
❖ KES 160 Million, of which KES 60 Million is carried over from the last financial
year is allocated for bursary and will be distributed once the county budget is
approved by the County Assembly so as to mitigate against the biting drought
that is on a worsening trend.

Energy Environment and Natural Resource

❖ Climate finance regulation policy and climate fund action plan discussed with the
national treasury; awaiting input from the chief officer finance to be fast-tracked.
The policy documents have a potential of unlocking more than a billion shillings
annually in financing the climate action.
❖ Commemorated the worlds Giraffe Day in collaboration with the Kenya Wildlife
Service (KWS) on the 21st June. The occasion was graced by the
Governor.

❖ In collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP) distributed to farmers
300 fruit seedlings and trained 90 farmers in Habaswein, Wajir East and Eldas
on agroforestry.
❖ Cleared all climate change adaptation pending bill amounting to Kes 75m to 33
vendors and contractors.

ICT and Government

❖ Received a virtual training on improvement of county website and other
interactive platforms like SMS platform for the county residents with support
from the USAID kuza
❖ Had a one-week physical training in collaboration with the RLA on Geographic
Information System (GIS) for focal persons from 10 departments in the county on 25th
May.
❖ Undertook assessment of internet access for schools with support from USAID,
the last mile connectivity community anchor institutions programme aims to
improve internet connectivity for communities through institutions like schools.

Public Works and Housing

❖ Meeting held with all technical staff in the department to streamline county
government project management to achieve value for money in all infrastructure
projects and avoid ghost projects or poor workmanship.
❖ Have engaged the national government for verification of national and county
assets with the aim to reclaim all government assets especially residential
housing units.
❖ Have rolled out rental collection from occupiers of government houses to boost
revenue.
❖ Have changed the work ethics with staff clocking responsibility register to ensure
service delivery.
❖ Have communicated to user departments on procedures of requesting and
accessing services from the works departments.
Land and physical Planning
❖ Developing Housing policy and GIS and data management policy for the County.
❖ Developing By laws for municipality: Property rates; Trades and Licensing Bill;
Enforcement Bill; Development control Bill; Solid Waste Management Bill and
Plan.
❖ A list of 700 beneficiaries out of the total 9000 surveyed parcels of land has been
submitted to the Lands Ministry for the issuance of title deeds.
❖ Sub-county plans – sensitization of the executive and the assembly set for the
first week of September to fast track physical planning of sub County
headquarters.
❖ Training of County GIS focal persons done with support from Mercy Corp and
RLA (10 and 20 participants respectively)
❖ Participatory resource map conducted in Eldas Sub County.
❖ Developed county information system – Health, education, Environment,
Agriculture, Water and Efficiency Monitoring Unit participated.
❖ Concept note on county spatial plan has been finalized and a request submitted to
the ministry of lands for technical support.
❖ A request for support to undertake cadastral surveys at sub-counties has been
submitted to the ministry of lands.

Municipality

❖ Garbage collection has improved significantly; staffs on duty outside normal
hours like weekends and public holidays are well facilitated.
❖ Skipper bins have been refurbished and additional ones procured.
❖ All trucks got serviced and full maintenance undertaken.
❖ Dumpsite has been cleaned and improved.
❖ The municipality has moved from rental to County offices and cleared an
outstanding electricity bill of Ksh 150,000.
❖ The department has been given an independent budget in order to enhance
service delivery.
❖ Slaughterhouse problem was solved; water reticulation system was improved and
well dug.
❖ Kenya Urban Support Program (KUSP) funds amounting to KES 90 million that
was stuck for over a year has been unlocked and ready to undertake projects as a
result of political good will from the Governor.
❖ Yahud dam is now manned by the enforcement officers of the department which
is well facilitated. KES 7 Million earmarked for its fencing and protection.
❖ Trained the municipal board on governance and administration in July 2021.

Pending Bills
The status of pending bill in Wajir County was estimated to be 4.5B. His Excellency
Ahmed Muktar prioritizes to clear 1B in 2021-2022 financial years. S