Uhuru appoints late Moyale MP widow chairperson of regional development body

ISIOLO, KENYA: The widow of the late Moyale MP, Dr Guracha Galgalo has been appointed to lead the Ewaso Ng’iro North Development Authority (Ennda).

Rehema Dida Jaldesa was picked by President Uhuru Kenyatta to be the chair person for Ennda over a period of 3 years in a gazette notice of last Friday.

She replaces long-serving Dr Abdullahi Haji Wako, a two-term MP for Isiolo South who served between 2004 until last Friday.

Rehema becomes the first woman to head the northern Kenyan based State authority which is the vastest starting from the Aberdare ranges in Nyandarua, down to arid Kieni in Nyeri, and Maua in Meru to the arid north of Laikipia, Samburu, Isiolo, Marsabit, Mandera, Wajir and Garissa.

Ennda headquarters is based in Isiolo town. Tuesday, women in Isiolo thanked President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto for appointing one of their own to the position.

“We thank the President and his deputy for recognizing our sister. We now say we feel that we are part of the National government,’’ said Asli Wako, the Chairlady of the County women’s Maendeleo ya Wanawake.

Wako, a widow of the charismatic Isiolo North MP, Ahmed Fayo was joined by hundreds of women at a fete at Isiolo Senior Police Mess among them Lucy Mworia, who is gunning for position of the national women organization in the forth coming election.

Rehema, a daughter of ex-Isiolo South MP, Dida Jaldesa was a runner-up in the last year’s Isiolo County Women Representative on URP ticket and lost narrowly to Tiyah Galgalo of TNA.

"I come from Isiolo and know something about Ennda. I will first familiarize myself with everything before I give my agenda,"she said Tuesday.

Ennda, established by an Act of Parliament in 1991, received a Sh 10 billion grant from the Africa Development Bank in 2003 and is now targeting to get development funding from the same organization and others, including from the Middle East.

In its integrated development plan, Ennda has embarked on ambitious plan to set up a wind power project at Turbi, in Marsabit, salt extraction in Maikona in Marsabit, a dam along Ewaso Ng’iro River at Archers Post to support irrigation in downstream, sewerage system in

Wajir, Irrigation along Daawa River in Mandera among other projects.

At Ennda, workers welcomed her appointment but called on her to look into their affairs saying they are paid poorly.