Taita- Taveta, Kenya: Political intrigues and vested interests now threaten the implementation of a multi-billion-shilling National Youth Service (NYS) project.
The Sh3 billion project has stalled over wrangles on the size of the proposed site for the NYS Training College in Mgeno, Taita-Taveta County.
The project ran into initial problems over a boundary dispute between Mwatate and Sagalla wards but leaders claimed this was solved to allow the project run through both regions.
NYS has threatened to pull out of the area if the county administration fails to allocate more than 2,000 acres of land for the construction of the training college even as blame games and wrangles among local leaders continue to jeopardise the project.
Lands Committee Member Aresmus Mwarabu accused the county administration of sabotaging the project geared towards benefiting the local community. “The project will spur economic development in the region and should be allowed to continue without interference,” said Mr Mwarabu in Wundanyi yesterday.
Two nominated county representatives allied to Jubilee – Rachael Dawai and Maria Chao – urged the county administration to embrace the project.
“We either embrace the project or else it will be relocated,” warned Ms Chao.
Ms Dawai claimed the county administration was frustrating national projects.
Solomon Mwenda, the proposed college commander, said the the county administration was only offering a paltry 300 acres of land yet NYS had requested for over 2,000 acres of land for the project.
Deputy Governor Mary Ndiga Kibuka and County Lands Chief Officer Kennedy Mwaita confirmed to the County Assembly Committee on Lands last Tuesday that the devolved unit had received an official request for 2,000 acres for the NYS training camp.
“The lands team has benchmarked with other NYS campuses across the country and found the size for the proposed training college to be too large,” Mr Mwaita told the lands committee yesterday.
He told the House team that a technical team from the Department of Lands and Mining had earlier done a gem identification survey in the vicinity of the existing NYS camp within a three-kilometre radius and indeed recorded significant traces of different gemstones on the targeted land.
Mr Mwenda told the lands committee that the NYS project had hit a snag and the authority would be forced to relocate to Kwale County.
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