Mutua discusses plans for 4,000-acre city with Uhuru Machakos Governor Dr Alfred Mutua last Wednesday became the first governor to visit State House, Nairobi to share his county’s development plans with President Uhuru Kenyatta. Even as other governors assembled at a Nairobi hotel to plot how to counter the move by the National Assembly to run Senators out of town, Mutua was meeting Uhuru to share his plans for a new 4,000- acre city, which is near Machakos town. Reports indicate the new city initiative, which has already secured pledges of nearly Sh300 billion, will consist of new hospitals, schools, and residential areas to cater for different income levels. The initiative was prompted by the lack of office space in Machakos town, which he says is congested. A recent investors’ conference held to discuss and facilitate investment in real estate, tourism, health, water, transport, banking and agriculture, among others, attracted investors from across the world. The investors, who came from Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Sudan, the United States, Canada, Britain, Italy, China, South Korea, Malaysia, , India, Oman and South Africa, entered into Memorandums of Understanding with the Machakos County Government to undertake various projects. Other projects Mutua has lined up include creating an entertainment city to house film and music studios, facilities for drama and action production, generation of 500 megawatts of power using solar and wind, a new airport near Konza City and airstrips in every constituency. Last week, Mutua also held talks with Information and Communication Technology Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiangi, Makueni Governor Prof Kivutha Kibwana and his Kajiado counterpart Dr David Nkedianye to discuss Konza City. Setting the pace “The meeting resolved to form a consultative group to facilitate and speed up the implementation of the Konza City project. I fully support the national project and Machakos is speeding up the development of its new city so as to prepare for Konza,” said Mutua. He said the infrastructure such as hotels, hospitals, schools and even entertainment centres being initiated will facilitate those who will be working in Konza because they want it to be a success. Later, Mutua, Dr Matiangi and Kenya Vision 2030 Director General Mugo Kibati held talks in his Machakos office on how Machakos can benefit from the National governments ICT programme. The former Government Spokesman has taken the zeal with which he handled government media management to governance and is setting the pace for other governors, some of who are still grappling with formation of their cabinets. He had reached an agreement to lease out land for investment by interested and able investors for a lease period of between 33 to 99 years. And to ensure the issue of insecurity is addressed to attract investors, Mutual revealed plans to put up a forensics laboratory during talks with Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko when he paid him a visit at his Machakos office in Machakos town recently. Addressing the media outside his office after meeting the DPP, Mutua stated that his government is working closely with the DPP’s office to ensure the county achieves its development goals through provision of adequate security and prosecution process. He said the county has already put in place Sh100 million as seed money towards establishment of a forensics laboratory and investigative centre that will be one of its kind in East Africa. “Our intention as a county government is to have a proper investigative unit in Machakos so that within 48 hours of a crime, somebody is arrested and the file taken to the office of the DPP with enough evidence for prosecution.” Mutua stated. Tobiko welcomed the initiative and asked other county governments to take steps to address crime in their regions, including by setting up forensic laboratories.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 15:56:36 +0000
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