The Council of Governors (CoG) chairman Wycliffe Oparanya
has met Kisumu Governor Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o who briefed him on the status of
preparedness by the county to combat Covid-19.
Governor Oparanya, who was accompanied by devolution Cabinet
Secretary Eugene Wamalwa and Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong, also discussed
the issue of floods in the region and how to address the menace.
“We discussed the issue of ravaging floods and how to help
the affected victims and deal with the effects of floods in the region. Later
we proceeded to Nyando area to distribute food to flood victims,” said
Oparanya.
Earlier last week Oparanya had hinted that the formation and
operations of the lake region economic bloc(LOREB) will be revisited once
proper legal framework is put in place.
Governor Wycliffe Oparanya with devolution cabinet secretary Eugene Wamalwa and host Kisumu Governor Prof Anyang Nyong’o.
“The yet to be fully operational economic blocs in the
country are six but the implementation process has stalled after there was no
laws to govern them making it hard for counties to transfer funds to the bloc’s
bank as we had no framework policies in place and we have pushed it up to the
advanced stage and we hope the devolution cabinet secretary Eugene Wamalwa will
approve it’s passing into law to enable us move on, in fact we have recalled
all our workers back to their respective counties until the policy framework is
up and working for the blo’cs country wide. ” he said.
On the issue of cane farming, the governor said the sugar
task force was at the Presidential level where him, cabinet secretary of
agriculture and his finance counterpart are working to ensure that the sugar
regulations are ready and ensure that the scrapped sugar act of 2012 is re-introduced
through pushing for its passing in the national assembly.
The governor also assured maize farmers that the government
was not importing maize but had allowed some private sector to import to fill
the gap since the national cereals and produce board (NCPB) failed to purchase
the commodity in plenty leaving many farmers with a lot of stock of the same.