Githunguri Member of Parliament Gathoni Wamuchomba has criticised Kiambu Governor Kimani Wamatangi over the county's presentation at the just-concluded devolution conference.
The MP compared the governor to others like Murang'a's Irungu Kang'ata, who had better success stories than Kiambu, which she highlighted was the biggest county economically.
She thus described Wamatangi's presentation of exhibiting piglets and chicks as the county's biggest success as a travesty.
"From this platform, some counties, such as Murang’a under Governor Irungu Kang’ata, stood tall, taking home honour and pride after showcasing innovation in health technology, food security, county approvals digitisation, and many other forward-looking initiatives," the statement read in part.
"Meanwhile, Kiambu under Governor Kimani Wamatangi left the stage with ridicule, exhibiting piglets and chicks as our county’s “success story”.
With over Ksh13 billion annually allocated from the national government and another Ksh6 billion from own-source revenue, Wamuchomba emphasised that the governor ought to have showcased a lot more, like thriving pork sausage industries and dairy processing plants scaling up milk and dairy products, among others.
"The era of handouts disguised as empowerment is long gone. Kiambu needs industries to create jobs. When people have jobs and money in their pockets, they can buy piglets, chicks, or whatever they need, not queue for freebies," she stated.
Following the presentation, therefore, the MP tasked the governor to answer several questions, including where the farmers receiving the piglets and chicks buy animal feed from and at what prices.
For this, she urged him to adopt Kang’ata’s subsidies model to cushion them.
She also enquired where the farmers sell mature pigs and chickens, and why the county cannot just revive the bacon factory in Uplands, Limuru, to guarantee a ready market.
On input and support, she asked why the governor could not support and operationalise an animal feed manufacturing factory to sustain the pig and poultry sector after supplying maize feed to farmers.
Lastly, she urged the governor to adopt Murang’a’s ICT innovation model in hospitals to improve efficiency, operations, supply management and approvals for the construction industry.
