Local people.
Shared evidence.

00:00

Narration

Makueni County Development Forum, MCDF, whose objective was to mobilise people, ideas and resources so as to fast track development of Makueni County.

00:46

Stephen NzonziChairperson — MCDF

The new constitution brought out counties and Makueni was one of the counties in the Republic of Kenya, and we formed MCDF as professionals and other members to foster development in our new Makueni County.

So Makueni County Development Forum is about each person, each professional and others playing their role in development to make the village a better place to live in.

01:21

Julius KaloiChair — MCDF Kaiti Chapter

Ideally, Makueni County Development Forum follows a certain structure where we have a chairman with six co-chairs representing the six constituencies. We have a secretary, we have a treasurer, and from there we have 15 members from each constituency who come in to form the steering committee.

In order to achieve their objectives, Makueni County Development Forum focuses on key priorities. These include people mobilisation, resource mobilisation, development priorities, government and leadership.

02:08

Stephen NzonziChairperson — MCDF

The objective actually is about mobilisation of four things. One is mobilisation of people, what we call networking, bringing people, professionals and people from Makueni together. Number two is about mobilisation of the resources which are there to bring development.

Number four, it's about bringing in or identifying development priorities and working with different parties to identify those development priorities and assist in implementation. Number four is about mobilisation of leadership and governance.

02:48

James KatuleChair — MCDF Kilome Chapter

I would be able to say that it is an excellent vehicle for the development agenda of Makueni. At times when it has been difficult for the Makueni counties and some of us do know this, we have participated in bringing together some of the antagonists in this area, and we have put them in rooms, we have facilitated that to ensure that Makueni continues.

We really think that we are working hand in hand with the county to ensure benefits for the people of Makueni.

03:29

Julius KaloiChair — MCDF Kaiti Chapter

Each constituency in the county outlines priorities to be achieved for the benefit of its constituents. So far through MCDF, key milestones have been achieved in each constituency. As MCDF, we have attempted to do a number of activities in the sub-counties.

For example, in Kaiti, we have been able to mobilise our four wards, where we have chairs also forming a structure with a secretary and a treasurer. We have been able to mobilise our people to form investment groups, and we have a great Kaiti investment company that is tearing our team on that end.

04:22

Cosmas MutavaChair — MCDF Makueni Chapter

And in our constituency, we have some projects that we have been undertaking, one of them being the planting of trees so that we can now go green in Makueni. And in our constituency, we have done this one in some places like Makueni Boys, Kwa Mbila Dam and other places.

We have earmarked other places like Ndango Hill, Mavindini, Kathonzweni and so many other places.

04:53

Dr. Zebedee MwandiMember — MCDF

As a founder member of MCDF from Kilome constituency, I would say that I have benefitted a lot in being in this group. There is a lot of networking. I've been able to know professionals and colleagues from the other constituencies — from Makueni, Kibwezi, both East and West, Mbooni, Kaiti and even beyond my own village and location.

The people who I went to school with, I've been able to expand my networking. And I've seen a lot of benefits because there is so much good that can come when you know who is who. It could be something personal, it could be something for the school, it could be something related to work. And I would encourage everybody to be able to see the benefit of being in this network. It's a network that works. We have seen a lot of benefits accruing from just knowing who is who.

There are people in government, there are people in the private sector, there are people in other different in academia. And that networking is critical for you to be able to raise or improve your net worth as an individual or as a professional.

I would also like to say that there are other benefits that as a son of Makueni, as a son of Kilome, where I come from — in Kikamba, we usually say that there is so much you can be able to give back to that community. Yes, everybody has been able to do it as an individual, whether it is in your local church, in the school where you went. But there is so much good when you know you are a team.

Take for example, the primary school there where you went. How many of you have ever come together and gone back to that school? Personally, we have been able to mobilize ourselves and go back to that school. We have seen just the presence — not just giving money, just going there and saying that I was in this class. When I was here, that window did not have a window pane, so there was no shutter. And that child who has been there would be able to link easily that, oh, so-and-so who has been successful can be able, or came from this particular point, and that is the greatest motivation that we can be able to give.

So I would encourage many of the people who have made it in life, from Makueni in general and from each constituency, to consider going back to their primary schools — not as an individual, although it is encouraged, but as a group, and that can be able to be the greatest motivation. Money, for example, we had given a lot of money in the school to buy presents, but we realized that through collaboration with the head teacher that the presence of being there has a better encouragement, or motivator, is a greater motivator to the young ones, and that they can be able to see themselves also becoming, you know, successful in life.

There are other benefits that we've been able to do. We've been able to pull resources together as a team, build gabions, or build sand dams, contribute to development initiatives in Kilome, for instance. We've been able, at one time, we even assisted the office of the DC when he didn't have electricity and were able to contribute for the money to go and pay for the initial account for him to be able to get electricity, and while people were going all the way to Salama to do photocopy, now they were able to do photocopy right there in the DC's office.

In 2015, we did the greening project. This was an impact project of the entire Makueni County. In 2015, Kibwezi East Development Forum, we launched the greening project in November 2015 at a school in Mtito Andei. This is Matulani High School. It was a very big success, and we are happy with what we did as professionals, Kibwezi East. We know the success rate is between 60% to 70%, because everyone knows how Kibwezi East is very dry.

But the students, because we are doing greening in schools, our students, they have taken it upon themselves by the concept that we introduced: adopt a tree, nurture the tree and grow with it as you enjoy your school work. So that one is going on very well.

The second big success story that these professionals from Kibwezi East did in 2016 was the Boda Boda Training Initiative. You will all bear witness that a lot of lives have been lost because of poor usage of Boda Boda. Like in Kibwezi East, people plant green grams in the Engo. We bring up goats and livestock. Once you go to the market and you sell your produce, the next thing you are thinking about is just to buy a Boda Boda off the road you go. Without a single training, without any sensitization, awareness, you just want thinking about making money. This has cost a lot of lives, a lot of limbs have been broken.

So as professionals from Kibwezi East, we came together and we decided to let us organize a sensitization and awareness training for better usage of these Boda Boda.

10:52

Joyce KasyokiChair — MCDF Kibwezi East Chapter

We called all our Boda Boda users in Kibwezi East from all the four wards. We had a one-day training. This one they enjoyed it very much. And today we have gotten feedback that they are now much aware. They have even gone ahead to get licenses before they were riding without licenses. They have taken insurance and now they are managing their funds well, because we also managed to talk to them about financial matters and how to make savings and also take insurance cover for themselves.

For the Makueni County Development Forum, the sky is the limit and they have in place strategic plans for the future of Makueni County. Looking into the future, we would like to have more and more of the professionals and business people join these particular groups at the county level. We would like structures which are going down to the village level where we have the sub-county, we go down to the ward level and eventually down to the villages, so that we have representation all over the county of Makueni.

12:15

James KatuleChair — MCDF Kilome Chapter

Future of MCDF devolution and investment, what does this mean? This is investment opportunities at our doorstep. I am appealing to you MCDF and all our six sub-chapters. Let us synergize, we invest together, put our money together so that we can invest in places like Konza TechnoCity. It has come to us. Let us be the first ones to invest in this place.

And I want to congratulate you people because I know we have investment companies that have been formed looking towards investing in this TechnoCity. And at this point I cannot forget to congratulate Makueni Aka Housing Cooperative Society, where I am the Honorable Secretary. This is a group of women who have come together, they have put their finances together, to put the first Makueni plaza in Konza TechnoCity.

13:22

Narration

Undoubtedly, since inception, the Makueni County Development Forum has made significant strides and had tremendous positive impact on residents of Makueni County. Fully committed their mission to fast-track development of the county in order to improve the people's well-being, the MCDF General Assembly meets twice every year.

The last meeting this year will be taking place on Saturday, December 3rd at Konza City from 10 a.m. The theme of this year's assembly is investment. Konza TechnoCity is here to cut down a Konza on 3rd of December 2016.