Kiambu best county in agriculture, education as governor tops Central
Kiambu county has been recognised as the most revolutionary in agriculture and education sectors.
At a ceremony held in Mombasa last week, Kiambu was commended for implementing the best policies in the sectors.
The fourth edition of the County Gala Award (2022) also ranked the county Governor James Nyoro as the best performing county chief in Central region.
In the ranking, Kericho Governor Paul Chepkwony was voted the best performing governor overall, Nakuru’s Lee Kinyanjui the most progressive while Godhana Dhadho of Tana River was feted the most transformative and innovative. Ann Kananu of Nairobi had the most outstanding leadership.
The award organisers said Nyoro’s efforts in restoring the agriculture sector through budgetary allocation was outstanding. Before Nyoro took over two years ago, agriculture sector had no budgetary allocation but now it gets close to Sh1 billion.
Kiambu has doubled efforts towards attaining food security through the provision of farm inputs to farmers, such as fertilizers, seeds and seedlings. Kiambu is also providing free artificial insemination which has resulted in Kiambu becoming the leading milk producer in the country.
Recently, the county also introduced the village-based advisors (VBAs) programme, which involves selection of farmers for training in modern practices. In turn the farmers pass the acquired skills to other fellows in their localities. About 1,000 VBAs have so far trained more than 100,000 fellow farmers. The farmer-training-farmers model was lauded as revolutionary.
On education, the county was recognised for construction and rehabilitation of Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) centres and mainly for putting ECDE teachers on permanent employment.
Last year, the county employed 1,200 teachers on permanent terms, a move the award organisers said had enhanced education service delivery in the county.
Trade Chief Officer Mary Njoroge was also feted as the best chief officer across board.
The awarding event are organised by County Gala Awards, a business and marketing company whose chief executive Khalid Njiraini said their aim was to recognise leaders who have fulfilled the interest of mwananchi.
“We award achievements of leaders through well measured, calculated and specified results,” he said.
Inaugural County Gala Awards ceremony was held in Western region in 2019, the second in 2020 in Kisumu, Nyanza, while the third took place in 2021. The next will be in August next year.
