BBI: County seeks control of natural resources in new law

Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui (right) and his deputy Eric Korir follow proceeding during a Building Bridges Initiative meeting at Nakuru Showground. [Harun Wathari, Standard.]

For decades, Nakuru town residents have witnessed thousands of visitors troop to Lake Nakuru National Park for leisure and pleasure.

Statistics from government audit documents and other reports on management of the park show more than 200,000 local and international tourists visit the park annually. They pay Sh480 million as gate collection, which ends up in coffers of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) that manages the park.

Additionally, another target for the county to make money in terms of tapping into local revenue sources, is the 690 Megawatt of geothermal power produced with reserves estimated at 10,000MW.

These could change if a proposal contained in a memorandum presented to the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) is adopted. Last Friday, Governor Lee Kinyanjui and other local elected leaders met to discuss the proposals presented to the Senator Yusuf Haji-led BBI task force last month.

According to the proposals, transfer of the park would ensure equal treatment of such facilities considering Maasai Mara is managed by the County Government of Narok

Currently, the park, which is managed by KWS, does not pay any cash to the county government despite the huge annual collections.

Were it not for the coronavirus outbreak, leaders and residents from the 11 counties in Rift Valley were to converge at the Nakuru’s Afraha Stadium on March 21 to present their report to the BBI team.

If the proposals by Nakuru residents are factored in by the BBI team and made into law, the county’s annual local revenue collection would exceed Sh3 billion.

In addition to generating revenue for the government, the park also has contributed to the socio-economic development of Nakuru town and its environs through tourism development, hotel accommodation, food, curio sales and other entrepreneurial activities. When presenting the memorandum to the task force, Kinyanjui noted that the park was one of the main economic lifelines of the devolved unit and conceded that poor refuse disposal and increased heavy metal content from solid waste was degrading the lake.

On geothermal, the governor noted that it was a game changer natural resource in the county and was cheaper, environmental friendly and abundantly available in the country unlike oil.

“We shall partner and support all economic efforts that will fully utilise geothermal energy and the concept of industrial parks is very exciting and promising,” says Kinyanjui.

The governor points to the industrial park in Mai Mahiu in Naivasha as one of the capital projects by the national government, which would offer job opportunities and revenue for the county.

The county leadership also supports bid to increase funding upto 45 to devolve units across the country. Currently, counties get at least 15 percent of the equitable share of revenue raised nationally by the national government.

Specific crops

On food security, the county has proposed that funding towards agriculture be scaled up to ensure participation of women and youth.

“In addition, the State should provide grants to help in the promotion of specific crops such as pyrethrum,” read part of the proposal.  

On matters of inclusivity in the national leadership, Nakuru County leadership seeks to be included in cabinet appointments because the region has been side-lined since independence.

“The continued discrimination of persons from the county is a major blow to the principle of fairness and inclusivity,” the proposal stated.

The county leadership also proposed that the State must guarantee landowners especially those with title deeds protection of their properties. Also a law must be passed to ensure compensation for any loss that might be incurred by residents.

“Such compensation should be realistic and must be restorative in nature,” read the proposal.

On the thorny issue of caveat placed by the national government on land hived off the Mau forest for human settlement, the residents demanded that such should have a time frame and be valid.