Uhuru Kenyatta woos Ukambani with development promises

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday outlined a raft of development initiatives in Ukambani, a move intended to woo the opposition-leaning region to the Jubilee coalition.

The President hosted as many as 10,000 leaders and professionals from the region and listed the projects he intends to initiate or commission in the coming months.

As a sign of his commitment towards fulfilling his development pledges, President Kenyatta invited several Cabinet secretaries to address the delegation.

The CSs gave status reports of ongoing projects under their various ministries and specific timelines when they are expected to be completed.

Cabinet secretaries who were paraded before the delegation included James Macharia (Roads), Eugene Wamalwa (Water), Jacob Kaimenyi (Lands), Charles Keter (Energy) and Joe Mucheru (ICT).

Once the CSs were through, President Kenyatta promised that he would personally tour the region in early June to launch the projects.

“I will return to all the three Ukambani counties in the second week of June to launch the various road and energy projects,” he said.

He also promised to tour the region from June 19 to June 21 to inspect ongoing projects.

KONZA CITY

He also promised to bring a university charter to Machakos on May 19.

Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua led the delegation which was drawn from all the three Ukambani counties of Machakos, Kitui and Makueni.

Mr Keter told the meeting that almost all schools in Mwingi North are now connected to electricity.

His ICT counterpart Mr Mucheru assured them that the construction of Konza City will commence by July including the digging of nine boreholes, power connections as well as fencing.

“24 different players already at Konza to deliver universities, assembly plants of different things and other investments,” he was quoted on State House’s official Twitter handle.

Mr Keter also announced that the Mui Basin coal programme had already started adding that the government was working on the resettlement of local communities.

He further announced that power transmission lines from Mwingi to Garissa have been installed.

Prof Kaimenyi on his part said the ministry will issue 74,564 title deeds in Machakos, 33,247 others in Makueni while 40,735 Kitui residents will get the land documents.

The title deeds will be issued in Machakos, Makueni and Kitui between May 2 and May 4.