Governors from President Uhuru’s backyard of Central Kenya, have revealed their intentions of popularizing ODM Party Leader Raila Odinga in the region.
The governors who accompanied Odinga in a three-day tour of the region by Raila, have described it as fruitful adding that more of such tours are lined up to give the former prime minister more time to sell his narrative.
The group that included Nderitu Muriithi of Laikipia, Lee Kinyanjui (Nakuru), James Nyoro of Kiambu, and Francis Kimemia of Nyandarua County declared their meetings will be focused on all leaders in every category and key opinion leaders in the region.
“We shall plan and coordinate structured engagement with the region focusing on elected leaders, community leaders, business leaders, farmers’ organizations, the faith organizations, and key opinion leaders and shapers in the region.” They said.
The ultimate goal according to the governors is to help the key region in choosing their preferred presidential candidate ahead of the 2022 elections.
“This weekend is the first engagement in a series of consultative meetings planned across the entire region that will definitely culminate in a declaration.” They announced.
During the meeting with the ODM leader in Nanyuki Monday morning, the county chiefs disclosed that they held deliberated at length about issues of great importance to the region.
“We have had a long and fruitful discussion with PM focusing on areas of mutual interest to our region. In particular, we discussed at length the issue of expanding local economic opportunities through the creation of sustainable institutions.” Governor Muriithi said
“We have also discussed the growth of the economy and we conclude that this must be supported with very sound institutions and not by tokenism.” He added
Raila described his weekend tour of the region as fruitful, citing meetings with local leaders, youth representatives, students representatives, SMEs amongst others, where he was able to share his ideas. He said the meetings also gave him an opportunity to discuss his vision for the region
“I have been a guest in Mt Kenya for the last three days. We have had a wonderful time with the leadership of the people of this region.” He said
“This is part of consultative meetings across the country with our people. It is dialogue so as to identify problems affecting different parts of the country and come up with requisite policies to address them.” He added .
He also said he will continue engaging the people of the region ahead of 2022 elections.
Yesterday, September 26, he met Small & Media Enterprises (SMEs) owners from various parts of Laikipia County in Nanyuki.
The former premier assured that under his leadership, punitive taxes imposed on local SMEs will be relaxed to enable local entrepreneurs to flourish hence the growth of Kenya’s economy.
“We will continue investing in education, training. R & D, efficient brueaucracy and strong financial systems in support of the private sector. We intend to invigorate the ICT sector and make it an engine of growth and become a source of foreign exchange,” Odinga details in his plan.
He further assures that his government will provide a level playing field between small and medium size firms and the big corporations, so that big one do not thrive while the small ones, which could be multinationals in future, struggle.
Odinga also promises aggressive support for the private sector through tax breaks, subsidized credit, state guarantees for private borrowing, tariff exemptions and preferential access to imprted inputs required to produce exports.
“We plan to set up a body dedicated to longterm planning and regular review meetings on our international trade or export agenda. We will unveil an award scheme for excellent exporters and map out how to push up their share of African and world market.”
Odinga noted that Industrial Area, Nairobi, has become a gravesite for industries in the country. He highlighted that businessmen have resorted to import low quality products from foreign countries.
