MCAs urge govt to ease county borrowing process

A member of the Embu County Assembly has urged the National government to ease the process for county government obtaining loans if meaningful development is to be achieved in the grassroots.

Kaagari South MCA Robert Ireri appealed to the National government to remove the bottlenecks saying they block county governments from carrying out development projects with the speed they would want.

The MCA was speaking during the launch of Embu County’s initiative to tarmac more than 100 kilometers of county roads where he said bureaucracy was slowing down the quest for development.

Ireri said that the county government of Embu would have to borrow to finance some of its flagship projects since the annual budgetary allocations were inadequate to undertake some capital-intensive projects.

The County Assembly of Embu was planning to borrow Sh300 Million to finance the construction of an office complex, while the executive was in the process of borrowing Sh3.5 billion to fund the tarmacking of 106 kilometers of county roads, in addition to an ongoing 12.8 kilometers that has already kicked off.

“The National Government should take up their role to remove the ‘road blocks’ that are frustrating the effective implementation of the Embu County Development Fund since the devolved governments are not getting adequate support necessary to make them spur economic growth,” he said.

County Governments are required to seek a guarantee from the National Treasury and meet a raft of conditions before taking loans.

Written by Treeza Awuor