We celebrate donor organizations who have partnered with Mandera County to improve living standards

Mandera County Government would like to thank the various non-governmental organizations who continue to support/supplement the work of the County Government. In particular, we would like to say a BIG Thank You to the following organizations who stood by us even during the trying moments of inter-clan fighting and the insecurity in the Mandera County; Thank you UN Resident Coordinator for your support.

Despite the insecurity in Mandera County, you believed in us and lead a high powered delegation to Mandera in the middle of terror attack that saw thirty eight Kenyans dead. You were there to mourn with us and showed us motherly care. Mandera County is indebted and appreciate your support.

We thank UNFPA for the impactful partnership in the area of Maternal Health. We categorically appreciate the coordination work of Mr. Sid who believed in making maternal health a reality for Mandera County mothers.

The ambulance that you donated has gone a long way in helping the mothers that really needed the services. We appreciate you and your organization and look forward to continued partnership. Thank you World Bank for your support in Maternal Health, Livestock Resilience Program and health care funding.

For the coordination of high powered forum to re-map former marginalized Counties. Thank you for leading the debate on policy change for these Counties. We appreciate your support and look forward to continued partnership.

Mandera County appreciates the ambulance and logistic vehicle donation made by UNHCR to aid the Healthcare Sector. The ambulance will help reduce maternal health in the County. We thank UNHCR for your support and look forward to continued partnership. Thank you ACTED for the Food voucher and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Programs. We appreciate your close consultation and cooperation in regards to programing. We appreciate your close working relationship and look forward to working with you as we move forward.

Thank you Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) for Food Security/ Livelihood and WASH programming with IDPs and affected host communities, and Vocation training for the Youth. We appreciate the work you do with our IDPs, we look forward to continued support.

Thank you ISLAMIC RELIEF KENYA for livelihood, health and Nutrition programming,and support to Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC), we appreciate your work.

Thank you Kenya Red Cross Society – For support in health care staffing, WASH, nutrition, and the distribution of food and non-food items to IDPs. You are our strong support and we appreciate you.

Thank you USAID for the capacity building funding and AfyaPlus program in healthcare. We appreciate your support and look forward to continued relationship.

Thank you Save the Children for your support in Health Sector, Maternal health and Nutrition. We appreciate your work in Mandera West Sub County.

Thank you Danida for health care funding and support, WFP in conjunction with Consortium of Cooperating partners (COCOP) for general food distribution and RACIDA for livelihood, Education, WASH and DRR programming. We appreciate you and look forward to continued excellent relationship to serving the people of Mandera County.

Thank you to all others who I may have not captured in this message. Your efforts are appreciated. Together we can go far in reaching the neediest members of our communities. Specifically, the Office of Donor Relations in the Department of Special Program will be your one-stop-shop for the coordination of non-governmental organizations’ work in the County.

For more information, please contact Tamima A Ali – Head of Special Programs, Disaster Preparedness and Management

Prudent financing marks Mandera’s rebirth

“We have a vibrant budget department. We channel 53 per cent of our budget to development projects. We currently have an absorption rate of funds at about 75 percent since the inception of the County Government.” - Ibrahim Barrow Hassan

For Mandera County devolution is a blessing. A region that never received any meaningful allocation of resources in 50 years of independence is now being mainstreamed into the rest of the country in terms of resource allocation. As a result, the County is expected to receive more than Kshs 100 billion over the next 10 years.

 “We are directing these resources to all sectors of our society in a way that it has never been seen before”. Says Ibrahim Barrow Hassan; CEC – Finance and economic planning. Some of these key sectors include infrastructure, health services, agriculture & Irrigation, livestock, education and water & Energy. According to World Bank reports, Mandera is one of the arid counties that have reported the lowest development indicators and the highest incidence of poverty in Kenya after many years of marginalization by successive regimes. It is estimated that about 87 percent of population of the county live below poverty line and it remains the most chronically food insecure county experiencing high malnutrition levels as well as the highest maternal mortality rates.

An aerial view of Mandera town which has seen a major facelift with the coming up of new constructions

 There are plenty of investment opportunities which according to County Integrated Development Plan can be targeted with view to improving infrastructure, Energy, Water Supply and many more. Governor Ali Roba says: “Mandera suffers from absolute under development over the years and will require huge capital inflows from alternative sources other than the County resources to be able to plug the gaps and improve living standards.” “The county government is proactively addressing the most urgent issues such as insecurity, water supply, food security, roads, health services and education among others,” Governor Roba says.

One of thye new constructions' taking place in Mandera

To uplift Mandera County to be at par with other counties, which did not suffer marginalization in Kenya, substantial resources must flow to it to finance infrastructural and development projects that can meaningfully improve peoples’ lives. The County Executive Committee member for Finance Ibrahim Barrow Hassan says the County Treasury too has put in place measures to enhance local revenue collection. “In the first two years of devolution, we have seen our revenue collection grow tremendously.”

Revenue collection has improved from KShs- 36million under the former local authorities to KSh 125 million under county government; a growth of 236 percent. We are projecting to collect KSh 220 million. The National Treasury has allocated Mandera County KSh 6.6 billion in 2013-2014 financial year and another KSh 7.8 billion in 2014-2015 financial year.

Architectural marvels redefine Mandera’s image

“Our mission is to improve lives. We will make it easier to reach hospitals and international markets. Getting this infrastructure right will spur all other sectors into excellence.” - Governor Ali Roba

There are buildings – boxes of varying shapes with square holes on the sides for windows. And the bigger they get the uglier they seem. Then there are pieces of art pregnant with cultural significance, as in Mandera town, where a boat and a cow’s face are slowly taking the pride of place.

Mandera town is today one huge construction site as the desert décor is transformed a stone a time into an architectural wonderland, thanks to the state of- the-art buildings being constructed by the County Government as well as the private investors. Governor Ali Roba holds that Mandera is a County of unlimited opportunities and endless possibilities.

He believes in investing right to unleash this potential by providing a dependable and sustainable infrastructural base. “Our mission is to improve lives. We will make it easier to reach hospitals and international markets. Getting this infrastructure right will spur all other sectors into excellence,” he says. What previously passed for a shanty township with ‘manyattas’ as dwelling places for a largely pastoralist population is now revelling in some of the best designed houses in the whole of Kenya.

The County minister for roads and public works, Ms Ethila Mohamud Issack, says they are applying best practices in having controlled development plans for Mandera town as well as for its townships of Takaba, Banisa, Elwak, Lafey, with professionals offering survey and physical planning services to investors and locals. Devolution has sparked off a rising demand for quality buildings for use as offices, as well as a rapid growth, especially in the hotel industry, where quality accommodation units that befit discerning patrons are emerging.

Landmark architectural masterpieces are on the way as the County Government of Mandera progresses the construction the County Assembly, designed in a shape reflecting the head of a cow, in this pastoralist land. The County’s Assembly building, the house on which the people’s will comes alive, has taken shape and is promising a presence so majestic the National Assembly building in Nairobi would not hold a candle to it. But behold what is being built as the official County Government headquarters. It is another brilliant piece of architecture taking the shape of a ship all sturdy to ferry the County through its unique environmental and manmade.

Achievements

• 12 inter-constituency roads covering 577 kilometres upgraded to gravel standards.

• Construction of the County Assembly on course for completion in January 2016.

• Tarmacking of 24.5 kilometres in Mandera town on-going.

• Gravelling of 152 kilometres inter-ward roads completed.

• Construction of a modern, quality rest house on course.

• Governor’s official residence under construction

• Travel time between key towns cut down by between 50-75 per cent.

• Design work for international airport done, ready to mobilise for construction.

• Construction of County Government headquarters on course for completion in January 2016.

• Construction of a stadium in Mandera town and daises in five sub-county headquarters on-going.

• Sub-county offices constructed in Lafey and Banisa towns with enough room for all departments.

• All government land secured by constructing stone perimeters.

• 40 drifts totaling 1,010 metres constructed to ensure roads are allweather.

Changing the desert into green farmland

“Mandera has virgin fertile soils, plenty of water from River Daua, all season

sunshine. With the right technology and crop care we are targeting

commercial scale production.” - Johora Mohamed Abdi, CEC Agriculture, Irrigation,

Livestock,Fisheries and Veterinary Services

 For many years Mandera was associated with sands, vast dry lands and a vulnerable people who begged for food and water whenever famine struck. Today, devolution has radically changed the County’s narrative and made farming a success story that baffles many. The drought-threatened arid lands have been turned into high impact green farms through irrigation along its rivers and dams and Mandera County is being converted into a food basket.Spurred by the need to create more arable land and produce more food, Mandera’s farms are expanding into the desert and the local community is slowly graduating from pastoralism and extreme poverty vulnerable to drought to sustainable agriculture.

Some 4,100 hectares of land are already under irrigation to produce maize, sorghum, cowpeas, onions, mangoes, sunflower, bananas and tomatoes. The race is on to tap the entire potential of 15,000 hectares.The County Government has put agriculture at the core of its growth plan. Its approach is simple, find the markets, create competitive paths to them and show farmers the way.

With irrigation, Mandera County Government has found a new and diversified source of income, where locals can feed their families, pay for school fees and medical care, accumulate savings for long-term stability, survive drought and adapt to a changing climate. By linking farmers to buyers through contract farming, a healthy local agricultural economy is beginning to emerge. Two years into devolution, Mandera is emerging as a shining example of how to improve food insecurity and spur subsistence farming in arid lands.

“We have been on a farming revival mission. We have converted farms, which were full of weeds into crop producing tracts. An agricultural department that was literally dead has been revived into a robust productive sector,” Governor Ali Roba says. “In 24 months we revived the agricultural sector and the farms are green almost through the years. We register bumper harvests and have a variety of food and cash crops.”

The County Executive Committee member for Agriculture Johora Mohamed Abdie, says the trick has been in reviving all failed irrigation farms that were abandoned. “We provided farmers with seeds, fertilizers and tractors at subsidized rates to encourage residents to return to farming and prosper agriculture. “The County is highly placed as a fruit producing County due to favorable climatic conditions for production of high value crops like mangoes, banana, and guavas. Johora Mohamed Abdi: “Mandera has virgin

fertile soils, plenty of water from River Daua sunshine all season, with the right technology and crop care we are targeting commercial scale production.”

 

A farmer weeding melon in his farm along Daua River

The river covers about 150 kilometres along Kenya’s border with Ethiopia and flows through Malkamari, Rhamu Dimtu, Rhamu, Libehia, Khalalio and Township wards into Somalia at Border Point 1. Governor Roba says, “The County urgently needs more farmland, and its only option is to reclaim land from the desert and revive agriculture through irrigation. The County’s ministry of agriculture has been working with farmers to transform the sandy wastes into profitable farmland, and to bring services and amenities to the communities that settle there. Since its coming into existence following devolution in 2013, the County Government will have injected Ksh950 million by the end of the current financial year, more than half of which will be invested in agricultural development as opposed to recurrent expenses.