AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ASPIRING GOVERNORS FROM THE COAST

Dear aspiring Governors from the Coast region

Allow me to share with you the voices of the people from the coastal region. As they say, the voice of the people in the voice of God and it is important to be in sync with the feelings and the aspiration of the people you wish to lead. During the recent County consultative forum for the 2^nd medium term Plan 2013-2017, stakeholders from the 6 counties identified five priority areas for each of the counties. During the consolidation of the views, six meetings were held at different times and venues. In the meetings, two priority areas namely, education and infrastructure were cited as priority development areas in all the six counties, health and sanitation rated as important in four counties while land ownership/security, agriculture and food security and employment creation rated by half of the counties are being top in their development priorities. These views might appear obvious to the general public and those seeking elective decision-making positions such as gubernatorial and senatorial offices, but my advice to those in the running is to seriously give some thought to the seven areas cited in those forums. Please note that the citizens are already aware of the challenges and are now asking for solutions through policies, strategies and implementation roadmaps that work.

For example, in education, the region lags behind during the performance of national examinations and their plea is to  build early childhood education schools, deploy more qualified teachers, set up more adult education centers, build special needs  schools, get more middle level colleges, improve learning infrastructure and set up funds for the poor students. As a person’s coming from the regions, they sent me to ask you to address these challenges.

As for infrastructure, they would like to see better roads, electricity in the rural areas, improved on ICT and telecommunication, railways as a means of transport. Three counties were equally concerned on issues of health, water and sanitation, landownership and agriculture/food security. Concerning health, the question is whether you will be able to increase the number of health facilities, employ more trained personnel, acquire more ambulances, improve sewage systems, drill more bore holes, improve and increase water treatment plants, scale up community health strategies. Other were very specific, such as the view that Msambweni hospital to referral hospital and equip Hola general hospital to level 5. Their requests make a lot of sense, don’t they? I noticed some of the areas are under national government. How will you influence?

I heard them speak loudly about land ownership and that in about 50 years after independence, they are still squatters in their ancestral land. They said that they have  hope that the implementation of national land policy will address their concerns. They request that if you come into the office of the governor, you would influence  setting up of  land commission office at the county and grassroots to help address the rampant land problem. They further indicated to me that the issue of land ownership also affect agriculture/ food security matter. But specifically, they would want to see more education towards modern farm methods irrigation, subside on farm inputs, create and improve food storage facilities, revive farmer cooperatives and stalled agricultural projects and develop the livestock sector and value chain in the agricultural production systems. In some areas, the people would want to know how you would address marketing of their produce, wildlife/human conflicts, increase inland fish farming. 

Three counties were concerned about security and suggested that security improvement should range from improvement on community policing to increase in the number of uniformed officers. They went further to state that police stations need to be provided with transport facilities, more police posts established and the terms and conditions of service improved. In all regions especially in major towns in the region, they are concerned about the future of the youth, the drug abuse problem and ask that you should develop programs to combat drug abuse besides setting up rehabilitation centers.

Waheshimiwa, your job is cut out for you. What you need are clear indicators on how we can measure your performance. Because you would like to get an excellent score and not just good, may I suggest that you improve on crime intelligence, use of technology in the police force to combat crime. Think of desalination of water for household and irrigated agriculture. Consider the potential of the LAPPSET project and the port of Mombasa and how the Coast region and the entire county can benefit from the over 300 nautical miles of Indian Ocean resources, the mining in Kwale and Taita. Take advantage of the newly established Universities and colleges to build human resource resources for home consumption and export to other counties, revive Mariakani milk, irrigation projects, Bixa enterprises, and cashew nuts, strengthen the coconut sector, just to mention a few. Ypu be innovative and develop a clear strategic and business plan with log frame to do monitoring and evaluation on yearly basis. Ensure you have county business with clear indicators and budget projections. Last but not least, consult widely and take full advantage of those who know, be a transformational  leader and work in a team. Never forget that you can use technology to enhance your performance.  Above all, show how you will address these issues and not what the issues are because the people have spoken and they know what they want. Good luck Governor.

Yours faithful voter

Prof. Shaukat Abdulrazak

CEO of the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation