Governor Anne Waiguru affirm commitment to revamp Kirinyaga Water Company
Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru has affirmed her commitment to revamp Kirinyaga Water and Sanitation Company Limited (Kiriwasco) to improve service delivery. Waiguru said her administration had initiated reforms at the company so as to streamline management and enhance water supply and sanitation services to the residents. She said reforms will ensure the company achieves her goal of provision of cost effective and affordable quality water and sanitation services to the residents of Kirinyaga County. “The County government has continued to support Kiriwasco in efforts to realise our vision for clean and reliable water to all homesteads in the County,” she said.
Waiguru spoke when she appeared before Senate Committee on County Public Investments and Special Funds to give responses on Kiriwasco’s Auditor General audit report. She said because of the provisions of the law, governors have very minimal engagement with water companies in terms of day-to-day management. “There is very minimal engagement with the governors, the only thing that we may do is maybe couple of times a year, you get a brief but in terms of running the institution because of the law they are supposed to be run as autonomous institutions with the Managing Director and the board so that they can run professionally without interference from us,” she said.
Waiguru said though issues raised by the Auditor General had satisfactorily been responded to, her administration would in future ensure all necessary information required during auditing period is availed in time. “When the County government satisfactorily responds to audit queries and are no more questions, it shows the company is well ran,” the governor stated. The Governor who is also the Chairperson Council of Governors (COG) said that the transfer of water companies’ assets from the national government to counties was still on course. “CoG is fast tracking the assets transfer report and we hope it will be ready by end of financial year,” said Waiguru.
The Senate Committee Chairman Godfrey Osotsi asked Governors to pursue and implement the Water Act, 2016 which puts the management of water companies under the County governments. Ososti said that County governments should take full control of water entities because Governors are answerable to the Senate when audit issues arise.
Kiambu Senator Karungo Thang’wa said Governors bear responsibility of ensuring residents have adequate water supply in their areas. “The county government’s must have keen interests on the daily operations of the water companies because at the end of the day, when there are water issues, residents demonstrate at the Governor’s office not at the companies,” said Senator Thang’wa.
Auditor General has recommended timely release of response documents to avoid queries that could be resolved at the time of the auditing process.
