By Bryan Tumwa and Grace Wekesa

Kakamega, Kenya:  Kakamega County’s first governor, Wycliffe Oparanya, is faced with a daunting task of managing the country’s second most populous county.

Aware of the problems that torment the health, education, agriculture, employment and housing sectors, Oparanya has embarked on his work with gusto, pledging to give Kakamega a new face.

Though the county economy is on a growth path with poverty levels declining from 56 per cent to 49 per cent between 2000 and 2006, Oparanya contends that overall, the poverty levels in Western region is now at 52 per cent, the third worst in the country after North Eastern and Coast regions.

Poverty index

“The main reason behind disparities in development across regions has been inequitable national resource sharing. Despite the national growth of the economy, the poverty index in Western Kenya still remains high,” he says.

However, he expresses optimism the new devolved system of government will enable the county to determine its own pace of development.

He insists there is a way to remedy the situation. He has thus vowed to engage his government in working hard for the shared goal of poverty reduction and sustainable development.

He also says he will prioritise economic growth.

The governor says he will also ensure that residents of all the twelve constituencies in the county take an active role in the development initiatives he implements.

He notes that youths in the county face a significant unemployment problem. He says that many jobless youths continue to suffer without a stable form of income as most of them even after undergoing formal education resort to undertake the less rewarding job of boda boda in the towns of Kakamega and Mumias.

“My government will facilitate entrepreneurship to create jobs for this younger generation and unemployment will become a thing of the past,” he says.

Food dependency

Despite receiving bimodal rainfall that is reliable, Kakamega County continues to import almost all of its food from other regions like Trans Nzoia and Central Kenya regions. Farmers in Kakamega specialise in growing sugarcane, a cash crop that only contributes towards the food dependency.

Although few farmers grow maize, it is mostly on a small scale and not enough to feed the entire county. Therefore, most of the maize that the county relies on comes from the North Rift.The governor has thus declared the county as food starved, saying bold new strategies are required to bolster its productivity.

“There is immense potential in the region waiting to be tapped. I plan to increase agricultural production by working closely with farmers and investing in factors of production,” says the governor.

He has announced that his county government will work towards increasing the production of maize as well as establishing a maize-processing factory within the county.

Job creation

By establishing a milling factory, Oparanya aims to give farmers an incentive to grow the crop while at the same time create jobs for the youth and give farmers value for their produce.

Dairy farming and fishing has started taking root in the county and the governor has assured residents pursuing either of the two farming ventures that he would facilitate them to produce more food for the millions of residents in the region.

The governor notes that under the Kenya Economic Stimulus Programme, over 12, 000 farmers have been helped to establish fishponds in the county which they use to produce fish for subsistence and commercial purposes. However, there’s still high demand for the produce in the market that surpasses the demand.

Since the region is also a major source of raw materials for three sugarcane-milling plants, the governor says farmers who grow the crop will also be helped to get better returns on their investments to alleviate poverty.

The cane farmers are set to benefit from the governor’s plans, which include carrying out sweeping changes in the management of the strategic sector.  “I will work together with the sugar factories as well as farmers to form a worker’s union to increase production of agricultural raw materials as well as improve returns accrued to farmers,” says Oparanya.

He adds that the tea-growing zone in the region has drawn his attention, prompting him to prioritise establishment of a tea factory.

The factories the governor plans to establish are expected to help farmers as well as provide employment opportunities for the jobless youth in the county.

Oparanya has also assured residents that he would put in place strategies to attract investors in compliance with vision 2030. Building road infrastructure to connect farmers to market centers would be the main premise of his strategies which are also aimed at empowering locals economically.

Investors

During his swearing in speech, the governor narrated a story about how he came from a very humble background just like most residents in the county. He said that he had to struggle through difficult circumstances while growing up, barely managing to acquire good education and without benefiting from the comforts that life had to offer.

His promise to residents was that he would travel the journey with them to make sure that he provides them with opportunities to better their lives.

The housing situation in Kakamega County is also one of the areas he says he will focus on during his term as the governor. Slums in the urban areas and the trademark mud walled houses of the rural areas tell nearly the entire story of Kakamega’s housing conundrum.

“I will ensure that residents get better housing that is replete with electricity and clean water. They should also be able to live under decent conditions and live better lives,” says Oparanya.

On health, the governor has committed to ensure that Kakamega Provincial General Hospital is upgraded to become a referral hospital attached to Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology.

“All the public health centers in the county will also be equipped with enough personnel and infrastructure to deliver quality healthcare. This will be to reduce the cost of accessing proper healthcare in far off parts of the country like Nairobi and Eldoret,” he says.

Oparanya says that his administration will also deal with the issue of promoting quality education in the region by improving infrastructure in schools and facilitating children to access education up to University level.