Jackson Mandago will go into history books as the first governor of Uasin Gishu County. This is basically to the fact that he was the first elected governor under the new system of governance, devolution.
Mandago is serving his second and final term in office and when he leaves what will people of Uasin Gishu remember him for?
The one project that will likely remain a legacy for the vocal governor is sponsorship program for students to study technical courses at the Eldoret-based Rift Valley Technical Training Institute (RVTTI).
Over 1,800 students have already been the beneficiaries of this program which Mandago has always said was founded on the basis of lack of key skills in the county among them plumbing and electrical technicians.
Under the project that was launched over 3 years ago, the county has been sponsoring 20 students in each of the 30 wards to join RVTTI, that is 600 per year.
Already two batches of the students under the sponsorship program have graduated and are now ready to offer services to mwananchi.
To enhance the initiative, the governor recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kenya Technical Trainers College (KTTC) that will see 98 of the students who graduated from RVTTI go through a training that will enable them to be teachers at the technical an vocational institutions across the country.
This is the project that will definitely impact positively on the community; youths will get skills that will enable them to earn a living subsequently contributing to economic growth.
With 20 youths in each ward joining the program annually, it will remain a legacy that many locals will always live to remember that it was the brainchild of governor Mandago.