The county government of Nyeri has prioritized health and infrastructure in the 2021/2022 budget. Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga the move follows his betting on the completion of projects to improve his development record ahead of 2022 polls. Finance Executive Robert Thuo maintained that the budget’s focus was on economic recovery.
“Focus will be directed towards economic recovery to mitigate the adverse effects of Covid-19 pandemic and repositioning the lives and livelihoods of all Nyeri citizens to normalcy in order to achieve sustained social economic development,” said Finance Executive Robert Thuo.
Under the county’s Sh 8.1billion budget, Sh184 million has been allocated for the completion of the Narumoru Level Four Hospital whose construction started in 2019 with partial funding from the World Bank under the Kenya Devolution Support Programme. The hospital is 90% complete.
Conditional grants
The county has also allocated Sh20 million towards the completion and equipping of the Mt Kenya Isolation Ward. The facility is 70% complete and is expected to be operational by the end of the financial year. This is so as to achieve the 300 bed capacity due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Construction of the Sh600 million Asian bus termini was launched in 2019 to decongest the town’s Central Business District. The project has been allocated Sh 326million for its completion. The county has also allocated Sh40 million to the department of Lands and physical planning for the development of an online system, surveying and registration of colonial villages. An extra Sh60 million will be used for upgrading a number of informal settlements within the county.
In the education sector, the county has proposed Sh160 million for the Elimu Fund kitty to benefit students in public secondary schools, colleges and universities. Another 60 needy Form One students, two from each of the 30 wards, will be fully sponsored by the governor’s kitty.
The Education has been allocated Sh38.5 million to be used to refurbish and equip ECDE and youth polytechnic centres while the Sports department will get Sh15 million for the development of stadiums. The agriculture sector, which is Nyeri’s economic mainstay, has been allocated Sh475.5 million for the improvement of crops and livestock while Sh72.4 million will be used to construct markets.
The county government will spend another Sh501.8 million on the construction of bridges, upgrading of county access roads and the installation of street lights. The county is set to receive Sh6.2 billion from the National Government as the equitable share and Sh966.2 million in conditional grants and donor funds in the financial year 2021/22.
