Akaranga: I don’t need five years; three will do

Vihiga Governor Moses Akaranga came into prominence when he floored then Vice-President Musalia Mudavadi in the 2002 General Election that ushered Narc into power.

A minister with the Pentecostal Assemblies of God, Mr Akaranga, formerly a senior business manager with Barclays Bank and a senior administrator with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Kenya, starts his day in the office with a prayer.

Despite fighting with an assembly controlled by Mr Mudavadi’s Amani Coalition, he is optimistic that he will turn the fortunes of Kenya’s smallest county around.

Q: You are a clergyman. Why politics?

A: What is wrong with that? Are you not a church person yourself?

I joined politics to make a contribution to help reduce the poverty levels amongst our people.

I am also reminded that great leaders such as Daniel and King David were religious.

Our Constitution demands integrity in public service. I am happy those are the values my background brings to this job.  

Q: A report by the Controller of Budget shows your government failed to spend Sh545.9 million in the last financial year. What is your justification?

A: That is a scheme by the enemies of devolution to create the impression that governors have failed.

The Constitution has created two independent governments which draw their cash from the Consolidated Fund.

There needs to be clarity on this matter and the media should help. A lot of the money which we are being accused of returning to the Treasury is committed to various projects. 

It is held for payment once the projects or the tendering processes are complete. In any case, the cash is kept in the county account at the Central Bank. There were teething problems but we have not failed.

Some children take one year to crawl. Others take longer. We are slightly over one year old.

Q: In what state did you find Vihiga and what progress have you made so far?

A: Vihiga is the smallest county in Kenya with a population of 600,000 people but with the highest population density of 1,200 people per square kilometre.

The level of poverty is 62 per cent, and youth unemployment is about 82 per cent. Roads were extremely bad.

The medical facilities were in a sorry state, and needed urgent attention.

Few places have piped water. It took us considerable time to set up the required structures.

We had setbacks with our cabinet, but we handled it professionally (in reference to the impeachment of four county ministers).

Q: What have you done to remedy that?

We are upgrading roads in every ward as well as health facilities in every sub-county.

A lot of work is being done although it has not been given media attention. Like former President Mwai Kibaki, I don’t talk too much.

I keep quiet and work and allow people evaluate my performance. We have started water projects in Shamakhokho, Kaimosi, Bumbo,  Luanda, Majengo, Kaimosi Friends Chekombero, Kaptek, Esalwa, Mudungu and Magui. A town like Luanda that has never had water now has running water.

Q: What do you consider as the key opportunities for the transformation of Vihiga County?

We must first appreciate our challenges, our main one being to come up with programmes that will reduce poverty and grow our economy.

We believe we can reduce poverty levels through agriculture, education, tourism, expanded trade and improvement of road and health infrastructure.

We have come up with a project which will see us give one dairy cow per poor family, which will increase milk production and raise incomes for families. With proper training, our youth will get jobs and engage in empowerment projects.

The other is our human resources.  We want to educate our people and empower them with skills to consolidate the economic gains that we intend to make.

We have a Sh150 million grant for skills development in polytechnics, in collaboration with the national and Chinese governments. We are setting up and equipping five such institutions presently Kaimosi to teach motor vehicle mechanics, Lutego in Sabatia, Emolulo in Luanda and Ebukanga in Emuhaya.

Q: What else you doing for education?

A: We have allocated Sh2 million for education bursaries in every ward.

The county government is at the centre of efforts to set up the Kaimosi Friends University of Science and Technology and the first lot of students is expected to report in September this year.

We have also started rehabilitation of Early Childhood Development Centres. So far, we have built 18 classrooms at a cost of Sh18 million.

We are finalising plans to hire 722 nursery school teachers and 87 youth polytechnic instructors. O

ne of the biggest challenges in education is infrastructure. Most is in a bad state. I am appealing to professionals from Vihiga to return to the schools they attended and adopt a classroom to equip and rehabilitate.

Q: There are arguments that agriculture has failed to lift communities out of poverty. How do you intend to help farmers make money?

A: Our focus is on horticulture because our farms are small. We have started to finance farmers to rear pigs, rabbits and chicken for commercial purposes. Our main challenge is technology, as well as training that will help farmers increase their productivity.

For instance, we are trying to revive extension services.

We are also giving farmers with subsidised fertiliser and other farm equipment.

Exactly 3,333 bags of calcium ammonium nitrate were sold to farmers at reduced prices, benefiting 4,256 households. My government bought and supplied 95,000 tissue culture banana stems to over 20,000 farmers.

We have also acquired 50,000 tea seedlings and supplied to farmers at a subsidised costs to improve tea acreage. Our intention is to ensure that Mudete Tea Factory operates at full capacity.

Q: But isn’t the problem with subsidy is that it creates a dependence cycle and denies a farmer control over the cost of production?

A: We have no choice.  It is happening in other countries such as India. I learnt this when I was assistant minister for Agriculture.

We must borrow best practices from countries such as Malawi. By supporting farmers through subsidies, Malawi now exports maize to its neighbours.

Q: Are there opportunities in tourism?

A: We are a beautiful county with a rich a culture.

A study has been done which suggested that we can get real value if we built a five-star hotel on the beautiful Maragoli Hills. The Kaimosi Forest is an extension of the Congo Forest.

I am also excited that the national Miss Tourism beauty pageant will be held in Vihiga next year when we expect to host thousands of Kenyans and market out county. We also intend to use sports heroes such as Joe Kadenge and Andrew Ayange  to showcase ourselves as the home of great talent and encourage our youth to explore possibilities in sports.

On trade, I plan to establish the Vihiga County Empowerment Fund, for which we have already set aside Sh20 million to give soft loans to traders.

Q: There were reports of an exodus of medical staff from this county last year...

A: There was no exodus.  One doctor left to pursue further studies.

That is what the media called an exodus. We have challenges with shortage of staff but there is no crisis.

Our emphasis is on delivery of quality services. It was why health workers protested when the sector was devolved.

Q: So what have you done in the health sector?

Health facilities have a regular supply of drugs. 

The county government also expects to receive about Sh6 million worth of medical equipment from the US. To address challenges of shortage of medical staff, we have started a medical training college in Mbale which has already admitted students.

Q: You can provide equipment and drugs but there is the small matter of attitude and work ethics.

A: It takes long for Kenyans to accept change. We are concerned about this and are engaging with workers through their leaders. I am ready to hold meetings with them whenever there is an issue.

Q: Still on human resources, how are you dealing with concerns about competence issues of the workers you inherited from local authorities? 

A: County governments are working with the national government to rationalise the staff we inherited. As I said earlier, our focus is on service delivery. The workers must deliver quality services; no less. 

Q: If Sunday Nation visited Vihiga at the end of your term, what difference could we expect to see?

A: Don’t wait for that long; come back at the end of next year.

You will drink clean piped water, the streets will be well lit, our health services will have improved, as will our infrastructure.

We will have a new county government office.

Vihiga will be greener because we have started planting more trees. We hope to produce more food, have better education services, and empower women and youth. Our aim is to significantly reduce the poverty levels.

We are open to criticism and new ideas on how to improve livelihoods as well.

United Vihiga Football club which we sponsor, will also be playing in the Kenya Premier League.