Kirinyaga — Kirinyaga Members of County Assemblies (MCA) Wednesday pledged to take their oversight role very seriously in bid to ensure that all the development projects captured in the 2023/2024 financial year are implemented without fail.
This they vowed during a special sitting in which they overwhelmingly passed the Kirinyaga County Appropriation bill which proposes a whooping Sh7.2 billion to be utilized in the upcoming financial year.
The commencement of a fresh financial year, they said marked the end blame games on the previous regimes and as such noted that it is incumbent upon them to responsibly steer the County in the right direction.
They added that they are not ready to be a let down to their electorate and the oath for which they took and as such pledged to roll their sleeves, work with the relevant County departments and fully own the County's successes and failures.
While tabling the budget estimates, the budget and appropriation chairperson Geoffrey Murimi noted 73 percent of the proposed budget will fund recurrent expenditure and 27 percent cater for development.
Among sectors set to benefit with a lion's share of the development kitty are Agriculture, livestock and Fisheries (Sh497 million), Health (Sh246 million) and Environment (sh181 million).
Under the recurrent expenditure, the health sector leads with a staggering sh2.1 billion as the County Assembly and Finance department follow with an estimated allocation of (Sh720 million) and (Sh570 million)respectively.
Murimi noted that new projects set to commence in the new financial term are among others Sagana Industrial Park which has been allocated Sh275 million, rehabilitation of rice canals (sh50 million) and an allocation Sh400 million set to cater for County Assembly development projects, Car-Mortgage Fund and ward based projects fund for all 20 wards.
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Murimi, who is also the Kiini ward MCA added that the budget is citizen friendly and will work for the betterment of all Kirinyaga residents and in line with Bottom-Up Economic model.
"This is a citizen centric based budget that will focus on uplifting the lives of our people. Through programmes like Industrial park establishment, our farmers' produce will be value-added hence conveniently sold to local or external markets and thus reaping value for their hard work."
His deputy vice chair Lucy Njeri noted that the proposed budget is timely and distributes resources equitably across the board. She said the budget will effectively cater for the needs of all Kirinyaga locals.
Deputy Speaker Jinaro Njamumo called on the executive to ensure seamless and timely implementation of the projects as he urged the house to be vigilant in bid to secure the residents' interests as captured in the budget.
He equally encouraged his colleagues to start making follow-ups with the relevant County departments, demanding work plans from the executive as there will be no reasonable excuse for them not to deliver.
The Mutithi ward MCA further assured that as the Assembly they will ensure full utilization of the funds in an effort to curb projects roll over to future budgets as witnessed in the previous regimes.
He further expressed concern over the high margin between the recurrent and development funds noting that it is crucial that the County physically conducts a head count of all County workers in order to rid it of possible ghost workers.
