Tana River Senator wants construction of county headquarters fast-tracked

Tana River Senator Danson Mungatana has called for the fast-tracking of the county headquarters after he claimed formal meetings by Governor Godhana Dhadho are being held at his residential house.

The Senator said that the initial contract sum of Sh495 million for the construction of the county government headquarters has increased to Sh601 million due to inflation brought by delays.

“Since the advent of devolution, out of the 47 counties in Kenya, only five have not been able to construct county headquarters, and Tana River is one of them. The 42 counties used their budgets to quickly construct their county headquarters to completion within the first or second term of devolution,” he said.

Senator Mungatana noted that Tana River and the other four counties got support from the national government on condition that it give 70 per cent of the cost and the county give 30 per cent. However, the implementation is done by the Public Works mentioning the arrangement has become a very big challenge.

Senator Mungatana said that the shame of Tana River operating for several years without a county headquarters building must come to an end.

“It is not right for members of the county executive to squeeze for offices. The people of Tana River County cannot wait any more,” he added.

The other counties where the county headquarters are yet to be completed include Lamu, Nyandarua, Tharaka Nithi and Isiolo.

The governors of the four counties, Issa Timamy (Lamu), Moses Ndirangu Badilisha (Nyandarua), Muthomi Njuki (Tharaka Nithi) and Abdi Ibrahim Hassan Guyo (Isiolo) gave the commitment to add their county budgets to fund any variations or additional costs to finish the construction when Treasury releases the balance of the monies owed to their counties.

The governors also demanded that they be given full control over the management of their respective county headquarters building projects and the removal of public works from the implementation role.

CS Njuguna Ndung'u gave a payment undertaking in writing on behalf of the Treasury, together with a schedule to execute exchequer releases for the balances of each respective county.