Siaya Governor James Orengo today morning visited the County Assembly of Siaya for the first time in his official capacity as governor to officially open the assembly and issue his official address to the members.
In what the Speaker of the Assembly George Okode regarded as not only a speech but a policy statement, the governor highlighted key issues that have been dogging Siaya and that his administration has prioritised to solve.
Among the prominent areas Orengo addressed were reforms targeting the public health sector saying that his administration will endeavour to recruit more personnel, provide better training and equipping the existing health care facilities with adequate equipment to offer quality services to its people.
Cases of pilferage of drugs in the public health facilities as cited by the governor posed a big hindrance to providing care and treatment in the county, a problem he intends to remedy through vigilance and use of technology in dispensation throughout the County’s health facilities.
On matters of food security, and nutrition Orengo through his administration proposed to establish a universal school feeding programme in all public schools and ECD centers in the county from the beginning of next year, 2023 to aid in preventing malnutrition especially in children.
One of Orengo’s immediate resolutions in streamlining the county’s revenue collection is to establish cashless revenue collection adding that if the county was capable of collecting Sh500 million as own source revenue the last financial year, if streamlined the collection can yield much more.
While addressing the Assembly, the governor pointed out that Siaya has the potential of producing its own food through injection of capital and investment in the Yala Swamp region while protecting its biodiversity, efforts which will go a long way in also increasing the dwindling forest coverage of the county.
“We can turn Siaya green by planting trees, we must raise Siaya to the next level from a county without a single factory into a county which can be considered in to an industrial hub, we can change the lives of our people by ensuring subsistence farming and petty trade evolve in to stable income generating occupations,” Orengo said.
