Yaani the same people saying that govt role should be to set up infrastructure are the same people supporting and asking the uninformed wazuans to give gaarment time to run and manage SGR to start making MONEY.Same people who said it was better to start somewhere with diesel locomotives but not okay for Makueni gaarment to start somewhere with water pans and grading earth roads. ujinga ingine ni ya kujipaka

The biggest problem here is our lack of appreciation of what makes Makueni tick. ZERO CORRUPTION. Makueni govt has approached poverty reduction in two strategies. Boost household income and provide safety nets for the vulnerable. Almost every household has a few mango and orange trees. The brokers have been having a field day exploiting these poor farmers. Now there is a ready buyer offering fair prices. Household earnings from mangoes have skyrocketed. Brokers used to buy @3/- per fruit. They have a new slogan in Kikamba that every home and some milk. (O nyumba na kalia). And again the county govt is offering a ready market. Makueni fresh. Muranga has been trying to set their milk processing plant but it will put the governor on a collision course with our monarch family. Why were KCC, KMC, KPCU successful ventures until the Moi era crooks laid their hands on them ? Because government can actually run highly efficient organizations. The late Gachagua tried to fix the mess with coffee prices in Nyeri and the cartels came out fighting with all they got. Had he succeeded, Nyeri would have been the first success story of devolution. Once again, Jubilee people understand government to be the place you go to enrich yourself. You can't view Kivutha Kibwana with such lenses. That is why Makueni looks surreal to you. You must be wondering how he will recover his campaign money. How he will get his cut if he pays farmers so much for their mangoes. The truth is he won't. I know its difficult to believe but not everyone wants to be a billionaire arap singh style.

on a serious note, I believe a government should aim or do what the local people can not, I mean if a nyumba kumi elder organized his members to set up water pans, that would be ok, but a government should aim to do more. I mean imagine a government buying mangoes from its citizens at 3 bob, will you ever lift those people out of poverty, they should be giving them subsidies, and credit to buy canters to transport their mangoes and tractors to expand their farm operations, not buying mangoes from them.

Isnt SGR INFRASTRUCTURE? This wazuan here is of the opinion that govt shouldn't seek to profit from the rail - FRM is the one who's been of the idea that the rail should be making profit now. On Makueni. I can clearly see where the constitutional prof is coming from. He has noted that his county is poor and identified areas where they as a county residents would benefit and his ideas are noble. Now, in as much as building a mango/fruit factory is necessary, the investment in the plant would have been better in the long run if it was done by a Sacco, or a specialized company as an investor. Govt is not good in running business because the players change, the next governor may not have an interest in mango production hence neglecting any maintenance and upgrading of the facility. We all know how parastatals ended up. If this investment was channeled to water projects like the Nol Turesh - Nzai water tank which has a capacity of 13.6 million litres wouldn't it be wise to invest in the distribution of this water allover Makueni? And wouldn't all kinds of fruit/veg processors want to be in Makueni if there are good roads, reliable water, and proper policies in place?

Kenyans generally thinks that the gvt has always endless supply of money to fund all the projects if it wishes to. i think economics should be made a compulsory subject in school