Garissa governor pledges prudent use of Sh4 billion

ARISSA governor Nathif Jama has pledged to ensure transparency in the use of the Sh4 billion allocated from the National Treasury last week.

He has also urged Garissa county executive members to stick to their department’s budgets and focus on projects that have been planned for in the current financial year. Garissa has been allocated Sh4,847,000,000 from Treasury to finance its development and recurrent expenditure in the 2013/2014 financial year.

The governor said Sh1.3 billion will go to health, sanitation and water sectors which he said are critical in developing a semi-arid county such as Garissa. Infrastructure development has been allocated Sh677,775,000 out of which Sh400,000,000 will be for roads and rehabilitation of civil works. County executive member for finance and economic planning, Idriss Mukhtar said he was delighted that Garissa was one of the eight counties whose budget was not questioned by Treasury and Controller of Budget.

“We had no deficit in our budget and ensured our development and recurrent expenditure was within our revenue collection capacity,” he said. Before Garissa’s budget was approved county assembly members had passed the County Appropriation Act 2013 which authorised withdrawal of funds from the county accounts.

Governor Nathif asked public officials in the county to be transparent and impartial as they deliver services to the local residents. “Access to resources will help locals plan and manage their development programmes effectively,” he said The governor said more funding will be set aside expansion of schools, health centre, markets, infrastructure and communication to improve living standards of communities in the county.

He warned against clannism and nepotism which he said could be a threat to implementation of devolution if encouraged by leaders. The governor also said the county government will focus on exploiting the tourism potential in Garissa using the funds that have been disbursed by Treasury. Nathif said his government will also give attention to improvement of security, education, infrastructure, water, sanitation and waste management, healthcare services, emergency response services, social services, environment, entrepreneurship, trade and manufacturing. Pastoralism is a major economic activity among the communities in the county.

However, the tourism sector is also growing with a number of hotels and resorts coming up. This compliments attractions such as the bouralgy Giraffe Sanctuary and other wildlife that contribute to the county’s tourism industry.

The county prides itself in having the only ‘long-necked Gerenuk’ East African. The dry and arid landscape could be exploited to offer tourism packages that encompass camel-back expeditions and camping activities. The governor said region could also be opened up to dessert rallying activities similar to those carried out in different regions in the world.

Previously leaders in the county had said Tana River, which flows through the region, is a great source of water that should be exploited to enable Garissa expand agricultural production.