Garissa residents provide their agendas to the BBI. BBI taskforce chairman and Garissa senator Yusuf Hajji deliver agendas to the Building Bridges Initiative.
We, the people of Garissa, Wajir, and Mandera counties, gathered in Garissa today to express our unequivocal support for the Building Bridges Initiative chaired by Sen. Yussuf Haji and as espoused by the spirit of the handshake between H.E. President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga.
The meeting was presided over by Rt. Hon Raila Odinga brought together governors, senators, MPs, and MCAs and attended by thousands of residents. We read out the recommendations to the BBI in public and presented a written memorandum to Raila Odinga who further presented it to Senator Haji.
These are some of our recommendations:
• National government to undertake land spatial plans for each of our counties in our region
• The government should register all community land and ensure that community land registration takes place before any large scale compulsory acquisition of land.
Review the Land Value Index Amendment Act 2018 to ensure community land is valued at its correct level in accordance with Article 63 of the Constitution of Kenya
The Government should remove the 3 miles rule along River Tana between Garissa County and Tana River County which is a source of conflict and boundary line to be the river.
• Address historical community land ownership.
Acknowledging Article 204 of the Constitution on the Equalization Fund and the delay on its disbursement to marginalized counties, we urge the gov't to take the following measures: a) Increase Equalization Fund from 0.5% as per the first CRA policy formula to 10%
On enhancing devolution, we recommend the following:
• Allocation to counties be increased to 45% of the current annual budget
• PFM Act to be reviewed to allow counties to directly negotiate and receive development support from development partners.
All counties should be connected to the National Electricity Grid to provide a level playing field for growth and development and remove the monopoly of the Kenya Power to accommodate the private sector for healthy competition and better service delivery.
The national government should provide an Economic Stimulus Fund for the key growth sectors (livestock, agriculture, climate change, infrastructure, natural resources, transport, cottage industries so as to create employment, social well-being & equity in the North.
The Government should invest in counter-radicalization measures and enhance corporation between the two levels of government in counter-terrorism measures.
It is our recommendation that; the 47 counties, 290 constituencies, and 1450 wards are retained and request for the creation of more constituencies, wards, and counties
• We recommend that there be infrastructural development for schools- both primary and secondary
• Teacher Service Commission be a semi-autonomous agency under the Ministry of Education
• Affirmative action to train Form 4 leavers with D plus for teacher training
We also recommend,
• Enacting legislation anchoring regional blocs in the law allowing them to access conditional grants to be used to encourage better planning, reduced wastage, and collaboration between counties
I can't thank enough all the political leaders who have traveled far to grace the BBI popularisation rally and the masses for turning out in large numbers for the momentous gathering
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