County ditches mabati offices, moves to new building

Tharaka Nithi County has unveiled a permanent building to house its headquarters and dumped a mabati structure that has been its home since 2013.

At the onset of devolution six years ago, Kathwana market was chosen as the county headquarters despite the fact that it had no infrastructure.

The county leadership chose to build semi-permanent mabati structures to house the governor and some executives as it set out to construct a modern building. 

Majority of county officials continued to use offices in Chuka town, more than 30 kilometres from Kathwana.

The iron sheet structure located on the Ena-Ishiara-Chiakariga-Mitunguu-Meru town highway was however dogged by controversy. The county was censured by the Transition Authority for using Sh60 million to put it up.  It was however the first building in the market with a flush toilet.

But in a span of six months, Governor Muthomi Njuki has put up a modern executive block. The building was finally opened for use on Friday by Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa.

The new block has spacious offices and unlike the mabati structure where officers suffered from the vagaries of weather in the semi-arid region, it has air conditioning.

Governor Njuki said the block was constructed with money saved after his administration weeded out ghost workers from its payroll. “We also asked the county assembly to come up with a supplementary budget incorporating the project and this has contributed to our success too,” he said.