Kirinyaga governor Anne Waiguru has decided to hand over the 100 acre land title deed to the Kenya Medical and Research Institute, ending the long tussle between the two institutions. Sources say the move was part of Waiguru strategy to fight the impeachment motion by MCAs that has been gagged by High Court.
Jubilee county chairman Muriithi Kangara brokered a lengthy meeting between the county council of elders and Governor Waiguru. After the daylong meeting at Waiguru’s Kutus town offices, Kangara came out in the company of the elders to brief the media on the development. At the meeting, the governor complained she was never against the project but wanted to know how locals would benefit. She went further to say powerful forces led by Interior PS Karanja Kibicho were out to use the issue for personal gain. After the meeting, elders led by their chairman Jeremiah Gateri left immediately in order not to fall foul to curfew rules by the government over the spread of the corona virus.
“I want to assure our people that Governor Anne Waiguru has finally forwarded the 100 acres land title to Kemri so that the construction of a modern level five hospital, a research centre and a herbal medicine manufacturing plant can start at the Wamumu site in Mwea West subcounty,” Kangara said.
Weekly Citizen has information that an MoU duly signed by the governor as required had been forwarded to relevant authorities for scrutiny. Further, a taskforce has already been formed between the ministry of Health, county government of Kirinyaga and Kemri which is planning on a groundbreaking day at Wamumu.
There has been a push and pull between various stakeholders over the Sh15 billion project whose construction should have started way back in 2015. Among such stakeholders were the area MCAs who have been pushing for the release of the title deed to Kemri leading to a bitter disagreement and differences with the governor. On her part, the governor has been insisting that a MoU should be signed between Kemri and her administration over how and to what extent the locals will benefit from the facility.
The governor was basing her argument on how the locals were shortchanged at the Thiba dam site yet it had been agreed 70pc of the jobs would be the preserve of the area residents which never came to be. Kibicho, a month ago, visited the stalled project at Wamumu and expressed his disappointment over the standoff between the governor and Kemri. A Sh50 million perimeter wall was put up a few years ago
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