46 governors headed to Makueni County for benchmarking

Makueni County Governor Prof. Kivutha Kibwana is set to host the country’s remaining 46 Governors for a peer learning conference to study the county’s successful public participation approach.

The forum, slated for July, will bring together all Governors and top county government officials from across the country to compare notes on various success stories.

“We are happy that many counties are coming to Makueni to benchmark. This is very positive. We believe that each county has a story to tell about devolution and that is why we are opening our doors to host this momentous forum,” Said Makueni County Governor Prof. Kivutha Kibwana.

The idea of Makueni County’s participatory approach, according to Kibwana, is to ensure the locals own the projects and to widen the supervisory net with the people watching over those responsible for the delivery of various government projects.

“We are very conscious when people praise us for the achievements. But we must not become proud thinking that we have done it. All that is happening in Makueni is because of the glory of God,” said the county boss.

Prof. Kibwana further noted that the approach has been used to develop annual budgets and the County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs).

“This year, through the approach, upto 120,000 people participated in the making of our 2018-2022 CIDP,” he said.

He also stated that Makueni County has a lot to learn from other counties, lauding Kisumu for the public service organization modeled along the national government system pioneered by former Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura.

“Meru is on top when it comes to the creation of various parastatals to undertake certain roles for the government; and we will be there (in Meru) next month to learn a few things from their success stories. Kwale’s structure of Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) system is the best,” Prof Kibwana said.

“It is good we now have a Maarifa Center at the CoG (Council of Governors) from where people can access information on what is happening in the other counties.”

County Finance Executive Committee Member Mary Kimanzi said that a committee had been set to work on the conference adding that it will be modeled along the Universal Health Care Conference hosted by the county in April.

“This is a privilege for us. And it will be the first time all governors are meeting in our county. We will do our best to ensure proper planning,” said Ms Kimanzi.

Deputy Governor Adelina Mwau also lauded the planned visit saying county governments’ now have a lot to learn from each other.

She said, “We previously had a lot of bench-marking happening outside the country. We are happy that now we can learn from each other locally.”