Ray of Hope for SEKEB as Machakos MCAs approve report on consideration of the constitutive agreement

Machakos MCAs Wednesday approved a report by joint County Assemblies Committee on consideration of the constitutive agreement on South Eastern Kenya Economic Bloc (SEKEB).

The Joint County Assemblies Committee consisting of Committees drawn from Kitui, Machakos, and Makueni County Assemblies was established on 15th November, 2019 to consider the constitutive agreement and formulation of legislation for operationalization of the agreement.

To learn about the structure of administration, the legal framework, and the procedure for funding the Economic Blocs, The Joint Committee conducted learning visits with the Lake Region Economic BLOC (LREB), Jumuiya ya Kaunti za Pwani (JKP), and the State Department of Devolution.

The Committee in the report established that the existing County Economic BLOCs such as Lake Region Economic Bloc cannot engage in joint investments directly since there is no established legal framework to guide on the same due to the failure by the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC) to provide regulations.

The joint committee recommendations;

The committee recommended SEKEB should conduct a feasibility study taking into consideration; shared resources, interests and benefits for the region and undertake robust public participation.

The committee also proposed that the Secretariat should be competitively sourced from each County and the CEO be recruited on a six year
contract.

Further, they recommended Governor’s political interests not be part of SEKEB and that the Summit should develop a Joint Venture Agreement that shall give the BLOC the authority to do projects jointly. Proceeds from the projects shall be shared equally among the Member Counties.

The committee further proposed SEKEB to invest in financial institutions as shareholders since Counties are not allowed to carry out the day-to-day administration of a BLOC. Dividends paid through the Counties from the said Institutions should be voted in as revenue by the member Counties.

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