Residents of the newly established Kadibo Sub County thronged the Sub County Headquarters in Rabuor to take part in the countywide people – centered conversation aimed at improving service delivery in Kisumu County.
The exercise dubbed, “huduma mashinani”, is spearheaded by the County Department for Public Service, County Administration and Participatory Development, Office of the Governor. Its main objective is to create a bridge between the people and County Executive by creating a platform of dialogue and Participatory Development where citizens can offer feedback on government services, programs and projects. It is a meet the people engagement forum where government officers freely interact with the public listening to their views on service delivery and responding to their concerns real time where possible.
This being the third station of this countywide exercise after Muhoroni and Nyando Sub Counties, the numbers were impressive with the forum bringing together people of all walks of life from the legislature, executive both national and county, non-state actors, the church, civil society groups and the youth, a clear indication that the exercise is gaining traction among residents of Kisumu County.
This engagement was particularly important for Kadibo, being a newly established administrative unit that needs to put structures and systems into place to fully operationalize its services.
While addressing the residents, the County Minister for Public Service Madam Judith Oluoch noted that the main goal of the exercise is to provide accountability and clarity on government services with the overall objective of improving service delivery. She urged residents to remain positive and stand with the County government to enable the Governor deliver on his agenda. She confirmed the County has plans to hold such public fora with citizens at least twice in a year.
The residents poured out their hearts clearly articulating issues and having open deliberations with the implementers of their projects. The conversations providing an open forum to discuss and address issues that would in the past enjoy unending bureaucratic procedures to get to the ears of government officers thus addressing the gap that existed between government and its citizens.
One by one, the residents commended the leadership of the County Government for making a deliberate step to directly engage with the public on government services terming it a visionary step to steer the County forward. The citizens provided a holistic review of the government’s achievements, weaknesses and areas of improvement touching on all the sectors. Top on the list were roads, education, agriculture and Trade with residents pointing directly at specific projects and their status. Coming out strongly from the deliberations and top priority areas included the need for the establishment of a huduma centre for Kadibo and the official launch of the Kadibo Sub County. Others were the need for change of strategy in selection of contractors for key government projects and appropriate budgetary requests. Residents urged the executive to award contracts to competent and reputable contractors preferably from the localities that are able to deliver on the projects as per the bill of quantities and the stated timelines. It was noted that some projects failed or lagged behind because the contractors lacked capacity. It was also noted that there is need for policy change in certain areas for systems to work and legislative action would be appropriate to create the much-needed change.
All the sub-county events shall be crowned by a County forum chaired by H.E the Governor and will bring to the table all issues raised at the different foras across the 8 Sub counties.
The conversation continues with the next dialogue set for Nyakach on 12th June, 2023 at Pap Onditi Hall followed by Kisumu East at Ragumo Community Hall on 14th June, 2023.