Homa Bay County University coming soon, says governor Cyprian Awiti

By James Omoro

Homa Bay, Kenya: The County Government of Homa Bay is finalising plans to build a full-fledged University, governor Cyprian Awiti has said.

Awiti said the proposed Tom Mboya Memorial University will help address the higher education crisis in the county which has no university, save for satellite colleges opened by Maseno and Jaramogi Oginga universities.

“We are working with development partners to build a university in Homa Bay. This will be done with speed,” Awiti said during his address to mark his one year in office.

Leaders who attended the function at Homa Bay Stadium, including Homa Bay Senator Otieno Kajwang and Homa Bay Town MP Opondo Kaluma, said the county was facing a higher education crisis because it had no university.

Awiti said the proposed university to be named after the former Economic Planning minister who was assassinated in 1969, will have campuses in various sub-county headquarters.

Force of the law

At the same time, the governor said he would to sack corrupt county officials.

Awiti said he would not allow corrupt activities in the county’s administrative units and told senior officers in his government to be transparent in their financial and procurement operations.

“I want to announce here today that we have declared war on corruption. Any officer found abetting corruption will face the full force of the law. From those collecting revenue in our markets to the most senior officers, corruption remains a serious crime,” he said during the address.

Awiti said his government had made great strides in development since he took office. He gave a long list of projects which were already underway in the county.

Egg production

These included construction of roads and investments in various agricultural and livestock sub-sectors and early childhood education. He said his government had started a poultry commercialisation project under which the youth and women in all the 40 wards have been supplied with hatcheries to enable them invest in egg production.

The governor said the establishment of potato and pineapple processing factories was also underway in Rangwe and Kabondo sub-counties respectively.

Awiti said he was determined to stop capital flight, which he said has impoverished the county.