Q:
Describe Marsabit County after one year of devolution under your leadership?
Governor
Ukur Yatani: Coming from a history of
marginalization, our administration has during the first year of devolution
laid a firm foundation to achieve meaningful development for our people. The county’s
leaders and citizens have agreed to form a common front to eradicate extreme hunger
and poverty as well as reduce the high maternal mortality rate in line with the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). To this end, we have increased
access to health facilities, focusing on primary
healthcare, infrastructure upgrade, supply of medicine and increased medical personnel.
During our first year in office we have also promoted harmonious co-existence
among our diverse ethnic communities through the all-inclusive ‘blue leadership’ approach. We have
improved access to water for the people and livestock, created a sound business
climate friendly environment and instituted legal and policy reforms to attract
investors to spur the region’s economic growth.
Similarly, my leadership has made good effort to
promote gender equity in county leadership for the empowerment of women. We
have enhanced public-private partnerships
as an instrument for development, especially in wind and solar energy projects.
Equally, we have amplified citizen participation and awareness through the mass
media and public forums. All these we have achieved through the close working
relationship of all leaders and the direct participation of the people, thanks
to devolution and the sovereignty of the people as enshrined in the Constitution
of Kenya, 2010.
Q:
Marsabit is the home of the ‘Cradle of Mankind’, Lake Paradise and a unique
wildlife game reserve famous for its rare animals. How does the county expect benefit
from this great tourist and natural resource potential?
We still retain our rich cultural legacy. There is confidence and optimism in the air;
the future looks brighter than yesterday. My great hope is that 2014 will demonstrate historic progress
in another way as devolution takes root to banish forever the ghost of
marginalization and build a solid base of socio-economic growth for the sake of
the current and future generations. We are working closely with the national government
to improve security, develop infrastructure and have encouraged more investors
in the private sector to exploit our tourist attractions. Our county expects to
get more world-class hotels and increased bed capacity. We are building
a county resort-cum ‘desert museum’ to boost the investments
in the tourism market.
We are partnering with the Kenya Tourist Board, the Kenya
Tourist Fund, the National Museums
of Kenya and domestic tourism associations
to promote tourism in Marsabit
County.
Q:
What is your vision for Marsabit County and what projects have you lined up to
change the lives of the residents?
Getting beyond the historical challenges still calls
for an unrelenting and significant policy efforts, harmonisation and implementation
of our programmes and applying the best governance standards. My vision is to
have a prosperous and cohesive county and an investment destination of choice.
This is why we have rolled out a number of projects aimed at poverty
alleviation. Some of the flagship projects include the construction of a modern abattoir, quality health facilities,
the setting up of a fund to improve access to education and increase the transition
rates. We have also have concrete plans to sink more boreholes and clean safe water supply, tarmac key Moyale and Marsabit
town roads and in other areas to open up Marsabit and its hinterland. Further, we are setting up cultural
promotion centres to promote tourism. To foster unity among our people, we have
established a cohesion and integration office.
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| Marsabit Governor Ukur Yatani |
Q:
Marsabit is also known for its livestock and agricultural potential. How does
your county intend to enhance productivity in these sectors?
Our path to success has undoubtedly been difficult,
and continues to be tricky, but as scholar Edward
R. Murrow once said: “Difficulty is
the excuse history never accepts.” So we are ready to accept the challenges
and confront them to achieve a breakthrough in our development agenda. It will take
passion and hard work. As home to the biggest population of small and large
stock – cattle, sheep, goats and camels - we have created market linkages to ensure
coordinated sale of animals to domestic, regional and global markets. This will
be preceded by value addition to the livestock products by building an ultra-modern
Sh300 million abattoir through public-private partnership. To improve
agricultural production, we have bought eight tractors to promote mechanisation
of crop husbandry and to reduce reliance on rain-fed agriculture through
irrigation and ensured free inputs, bought seeds worth Sh6 million. We are currently developing export promotion zones
with development partners to spur economic growth.
Q:
You have been very consistent in attracting investors to Marsabit County. Which
are the main areas that your government is seeking investments in?
Right now we are witnessing a ‘youth bulge’, with nearly half of the county’s population under
the age of 25. This could prove a
windfall opportunity or a bane, a demographic dividend or a population time
bomb, which means we have to reposition ourselves to address the challenges. A
youthful population is certainly fertile ground for innovation, dynamism, and creativity. This means we have to focus
on areas where we have comparative advantage, such as infrastructure development, real estate, agriculture, wind and solar energy, livestock related products
such as tanneries, tourism, the health sector and mining among other business opportunities to maximise on our development
potential. We hope to generate enough jobs to satisfy the aspirations of the
rising young generation.
This is why I have been urging the Executive and the
County Assembly to work in unity and think out of the box to make us succeed.
All the targeted plans have been laid clearly in our Marsabit County Integrated
development Plan, which will serve as the guide to our projects implementation.
Q:
Marsabit County is endowed with plenty of natural resources. What is your message
to local and investors seeking to exploit these natural resources?
Focusing ahead, factors such as the Internet revolution,
the rise of new smart machines, and the increasing high-tech component of products
will have dramatic implications for jobs and the way we work. This is the
reason we are inviting global experts in the hydroelectric power sector to help
us make sure that we exploit our resources in a manner that creates
inter-generational equity. Essentially we will exploit the resources in a
sustainable manner, without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs in line with section
33(A) of the Environmental
Management Act.
Q Which areas have you prioritised in your budgets?
The funds we receive from the national government
aim at a common goal - the need to remain glued to policies needed for
sustainable growth and rewarding opportunities to ultimately create more wealth
and the employment opportunities that we deeply need to make all of us feel better
off. This financial year we allocated Sh4.4
billion to meet our operational and developmental obligations. The priority
for us is to fortify the meagre overall recovery of our domestic economy and
make it sustainable by targeting improvement realised by improved in our
education, health and water services, the upgrading of our infrastructure as
well as the development of our livestock, agricultural and tourism sectors. We
envisage achieving this goal by inducing holistic growth.
Q:
Marsabit has a rich culture of beautiful people celebrated worldwide. What are
some of the advantages and challenges that come with this unique African
culture?
I should mention that I was an ambassador before I became the Governor. I have globe-trotted the
most dynamic regions of the world and these are some of the skills I want to
introduce in the management of the country from different standing positions of
comparative advantage.
I target the promotion of heritage or cultural tourism for social and economic development
and peaceful coexistence as a source of pride and celebration of our rich
culture. My challenge is that cultural diversity if not used constructively can
be destructive, thus the incessant ethnic clashes. We are therefore keen on
promoting county cohesion though dialogue and peaceful conflict resolution mechanism.
I thank the national government for joining me in this noble pursuit of peace through
the former National Assembly Speaker Francis ole Kaparo-led peace negotiation
team. We also have a rich pool of resourceful professionals in all spheres of
life who must play their part in the development of our great county and we
have already integrated many of them in our leadership structures. We intend to
take advantage of these special qualities from our intellectuals and their
capacity to help transform our country and the lives of our people.
Q: Outline the things you would like an investor
or visitor to Marsabit County to remember or know about?
We need to
continue to adapt and to reflect the changing dynamics of the county economy
and our partisanship. That is why we need the continued support of our whole
commitment to growth. We have the Sibiloi
national park - the origin of man and the ‘Cradle of Mankind’, where the eclipse of the sun was clearly
viewed by thousands of tourists a few years back.
We also treasure in the one and only true desert in
Kenya, the Chalbi Desert and the only
desert lake in the world – Lake Turkana.
This county is also the home of the famous elephants Ahmed and Abdullahi, who
were given 24-hour state protection through a presidential decree.
The first president, the late Mzee Jomo
Kenyatta, truly appreciated their unique creation. Marsabit County occupies
70,000
square kilometres (15 per cent of
Kenya’s landmass) and has the highest wind and solar potential in the
country. It is also home to the biggest population of sheep and goats and the
world-famous crater-lake, Lake Paradise.
We also cannot forget that this is the county where the smallest ethnic
community in Kenya, the El-Molo, are domiciled.
Q: Which are the major challenges facing
Marsabit County and how does your administration plan to overcome them?
No county can exist without facing socioeconomic and
political challenges and Marsabit
County is no exception. We face infrastructure challenges in roads, energy and
communication, which we aim to address through public-private partnership
ventures. This we can only achieve if we reduce incessant politicking among
incumbent leaders. I am not saying we don’t criticise, but only emphasising on
constructive criticism and tangible solutions. We don’t just expect blanket condemnation
of our work without being given viable alternatives to serve the people better.
We shall listen to and accept advice from scholars, the civil society, the business and
political elites who are willing to
support our credible development vision aimed at the greater good of the ‘Marsa’ community. That is why we formed
an all-inclusive government and developed a governance model that brings all
the people of Marsabit on board to promote cohesion and integration and foster
faster social and economic growth for the people.
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