“Let me take the earliest opportunity to thank Almighty Allah for His love and grace as we remain steadfast in our prayers in seeking His guidance in all that we do.
I also would like to thank each one of you, for electing me as your 3rd Governor- I know by doing so, you have placed your full trust and confidence in me, and on my part, I promise to serve you diligently.
Fellow Isiolo people, as you have observed, we are yet to get out of the most difficult drought situation- the rains that we have received across our county look depressed thus not sufficient to sustain our dominant livelihood, and get us out of the situation. We however remain hopeful in our prayers in asking the Almighty for rains that will give us reprieve.
Dear Isiolo people, I am delighted to host this 59th Jamhuri Day Celebration here in this historical town of Garbatulla. This town carries so much rich history as the oldest town that existed during colonial times, and marking the Jamhuri day celebration here is all intentional in demonstrating my administration’s plan to put in place measures and strategies that will build back Garbatulla town to its former glory-as a business hub where communities peacefully co-existed.
Fellow Isiolo people, it is exactly one hundred and ten (110) days since I was sworn in as your 3rd Governor, and ours is work that began in earnest and progressing well. Indeed, we have continued to push milestones in the most critical sectors like peace and security, health, education and food security among others -even as we set out to finalise our 3rd generation CIDP that will guide our development pathways in the next five years.
To begin with, on peace and security, we are working very closely and strategically with the national government, the office of the County Commissioner and his team and we have realized relative calm that has allowed us to embark on putting in place sustainable measures that will bring about lasting peace and security within and outside our borders. As we finalise the recruitment of National Police Reservists across our County, we have begun high-level engagement with the government and our neighbours in Samburu, Wajir, Garissa, Marsabit and Meru with a view to promote beneficial peace and peaceful co-existence along our borders.
Similarly, our health sector has received noticeable improvement evident in all our health facilities on how we deliver our services to the people, and I wish to commend my able Deputy Governor, who is my principal assistant, for providing strong leadership in pushing the limits on this front. I also laud our medics and all other staff in the sector for the good work while appealing to them to continue doing more as our people deserve nothing but the best.
Fellow Isiolo people, on food security and providing alternative livelihood for our people, my promise to revive past irrigation schemes is firmly on course and I am happy to announce to you that infrastructure for Seventy (70) acres of farm in Malkadaka, two hundred (200) acres in Bulesa and twenty (20) acres in Ngaremara is being finalised to begin irrigation farming and I am glad our farmers are ready to take on farming as an alternative livelihood to help eradicate hunger in our County. Going forward, my administration will work tirelessly to cover more acres for crop farming as we promote innovative and opportunistic farming across all our wards.
In addition, as a way of moving our people from poverty, it is time we tap into our natural resources. Our people have been undertaking casual mining blindly in areas like Kom-Durte with little results and benefit to the locals and the County. These activities however point to possible existence of some precious minerals in our County. It is therefore important for us as a County to develop policy and legal tools that will enable us to undertake robust resource mapping with an aim to see if mineralization is at levels large enough to be commercially extracted for equitable creation of wealth for our people as we also create new streams of income for Our County.
Dear Isiolo people, on education, my administration aims to close the gap that exists in our human resources by training more of our youths in technical and professional courses like medicine, engineering and law among others. In this regard, my administration has partnered with Direct-Aid Africa to sponsor fifty (50) of our youths in these technical areas to study abroad, and it is my hope that in future, we will double this number to attain critical mass in different fields to boost our own human capital.
On financial inclusion and women and youth economic empowerment, my administration is still committed and keen on establishing policy and legal framework that will allow us to avail funding to go to women and youth businesses and start-ups. I do believe that to grow our local economy, we must invest in these two groups, and that is exactly what my administration will desire to do once legal instruments are in place.
Fellow Isiolo people, as I conclude, as we all know, as a County we are set to benefit from two mega projects; is-Lapsset and Horn of Africa road which is Isiolo-Modogashe road. While I support this project as it is of great benefit to our people, I am disappointed by the way the aspect of valuing and compensating our people was undertaken in paving way for these two projects.
As your Governor, alongside other elected leaders, we are determined to correct all wrongs that were committed, and I humbly request you to remain patient as my administration will send an expert to the ground to listen to you and consolidate all the issues that need to be addressed by National Land Commission to ensure the review is done and you get deserving value for your land and properties.
Dear Isiolo people, as I sum up, my promise to you is to continuously engage you and other stakeholders as I work to better your lives and that of the next generation.
As we all know, elections and campaigns are behind us now, it is time for development and service delivery to each and every citizen of this great county, my appeal to you therefore is we shun divisive politics and instead come together to promote unity and brotherhood as we are all Isiolo people and shall always remain so.Thank you. God bless you, God bless Isiolo County, God bless Kenya.”
-H.E HON ABDI IBRAHIM GUYO
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