A Sh10 million talent academy stalls in Kirinyaga

Stalled building at Thanju village which would have housed a talent academy for Youths from Kirinyaga County. [Munene Kamau/Standard]

A talent academy started by former Kirinyaga County administration and allocated Sh10 million at Thanju village has stalled.

The project which stalled when it was about 40 per cent complete, according to the Kariti Ward MCA Joel Wagura, is now being vandalised.

“All the chain link wire which had been used to fence off the five-acre land on which the project stands has almost been vandalised, as well the expensive concrete poles,” he said.

The academy would have been used to tap and develop various talents from the youth in the county.

Kanyagia wa Mbaruki, a local resident, wondered why the county government embarked on a project of such a magnitude only to abandon it midway.

“As one of the area community leaders, I feel the county government owes us an apology since we asked to surrender our youth polytechnic land to give room for the academy, leaving our children with no alternative,” Mbaruki said.

He said the buildings which used to house the polytechnic are now dilapidated after many years of neglect while all the building materials which the contractor dumped at the academy site have been stolen.

But Governor Anne Waiguru has stated before that unless such stalled projects are cleared for completion by the Auditor General, her government would be skeptical to even be associated with them.

“Once the Auditor General is through with his forensic audit and gives such a project a clean bill of health, we will be ready to fund it further until completion since we are not ready to answer for audit queries we were not party to," she said.

Yesterday, Wagura said, being the area MCA, he was more concerned than anyone else since the project affects his ward residents more.