Kilifi,
Thursday May 9 2024,
KNA by Cynthia Maseno
The National Government, through the State Department of Devolution, and Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee (IGRTC) yesterday officially handed over assets that were previously owned under the municipality to the county government.
The assets include two parcels of land; one at Kilifi Veterinary Services and the other at the Social Development Services, and 259 movable assets worth 51.6 million shillings.
This follows the President’s commitment at the 9th National and County Coordinating Summit in February 2023 to facilitate the transfer of assets to defunct local authorities and those linked to devolved functions.
Speaking to the media during the exercise in Kilifi, IGRTC Chief Executive Officer Kipkirui Chepkwony commended the county government of Kilifi for their commitment to support and complete the exercise, making it the first county to fully complete the exercise and take over ownership of all the inherited assets.
He added that the responsibility now lies on the county government to ensure the transferred assets are updated in the asset register, utilized efficiently, necessary steps are taken to change the ownership, and the recommendations in the reports are implemented to safeguard and protect public assets.
“We have set up a multi-agency team comprising of the State Department, IGRTC, NTSA, National Treasury, and the State Department for Transport to support the county in implementation of the next steps that will involve transfers, re-registration, de-registration, and disposal of obsolete assets”, Chepkwony added.
He revealed that the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has already availed copies of ownership documents for the identified assets and successfully effected re-registration of some of the motor vehicles registered under various national government agencies and the defunct local authorities belonging to the county government of Kilifi.
Citing some of the gaps identified during the assessment of the assets including some missing assets, the CEO called upon both the national and county governments to take the necessary steps required to identify and safeguard the assets.
“It is very unfortunate that some of the listed assets are missing on the ground, even some land parcels have been encroached and grabbed. We call upon the county to identify and address these issues with the relevant agencies”, he stated.
Kilifi County Governor Gideon Mung’aro expressed gratitude to the IGRTC for their efforts in making the handing-over exercise a success stating that this move will help the county in undertaking some of its development projects.
“We are going to use the parcel of land at the social development services that has been handed over today to construct the county headquarters. We have already set aside 275 million shillings to begin this project”, Governor Mung’aro said.
He revealed that his administration is in the process of reclaiming 1,228 parcels of land that have been grabbed, adding that the only parcels of land that will not be reclaimed are those being used by government.
Courtesy of KNA
