It is now over five years since devolved systems of governance became operational across the country thanks to the 2010 constitution. With the inception of new governance, the leadership in place had to come in with new ideas and projects they thought would have a positive impact on the locals.
Governor Jackson Mandago being at the helm of Uasin Gishu County had several projects he rolled out in his first term in office. Some were successful, others are picking up while others failed.
Here are the two key projects rolled out by Mandago that has since flopped;
Inua Mama na Kuku
When he took over power as the first governor of Uasin Gishu, Mandago had a vision to financially empower women across the county and this prompted him to roll out the Inua Mama na Kuku initiative. Under this program, women groups were issued with free chicks and the beneficiaries had to take care of them and use as a capital to begin poultry farming.
This initiative picked up very well and by September 2016 it was successful as it had changed livelihoods of many women, most notably a group of reformed brewers who were among the over 300 women groups that had benefited.
The success of any project is determined by the ability to be sustained and retained but unfortunately for this one, it was never the case.
As early as 2017, some women groups had complained that their chicks died, probably because they did not take care of it as expected or for some other reasons but the bottom line here is that the project was abandoned along the way, a clear indication that it was a flop.
Kijana na Acre
This was another brilliant project that would have seen the issue of joblessness amongst the youths addressed. The brain behind this project was to give an acre to the youths and allow them to engage in farming activities, majorly the modern one. The idea was to woo the young generation into the agriculture sector that has for long been dominated by the elderly. The program never picked, at least from where I stand and if it was ever rolled out only a few benefited.
These two projects are brilliant and could be a positive impact to the youths and women who are the catalyst to economic growth at the community level and countrywide. Perhaps governor Mandago should consider revisiting them before he completes serving his second and last term in office.