Economic Planning PS Dr. Bonface Makokha visited Vihiga County Thursday  to assess the ongoing training of the National Government Administrative Officers (NGAO) on accurate data collection, aimed at enhancing national management and planning.

In an interview with the press at the training venue in a Vihiga hotel,  Makokha explained that their mandate at the State Department for Economic Planning was to ensure that they coordinate national planning, county planning, sectoral planning and also monitor implementation of projects, look at their results and evaluate the final product, on whether it was in line with what was planned.

“Based on that mandate, we realized that there was a gap in terms of grassroot data, making it a bit difficult to get timely, accurate and verifiable data when needed by the department and that is why we have partnered with the State Department for interior to train NGAO officers on data management,” he said.

The PS added that the data management training would help the trainees get knowledge on how to collect uniform data and ensure they are within the law that guides privacy and data collection, so that we have data that informs decisions of the government.

He informed the press that they had launched out the training last financial year where they trained NGAO officers in 11 counties that included Assistant Chiefs, Chiefs and Assistant County Commissioners, further detailing that the current ongoing training is being done in other 25 counties.

“This is why I decided to move around to monitor and get feedback from the trainees on whether the training is helpful, whether it would help improve service delivery and whether it would help government to make timely decisions based on the data collected and the answer I have received from Vihiga affirms that the training would not only be helpful in executing government’s mandate, but also at a personal level,” highlighted Dr. Makokha.

The PS reiterated that data is the new oil and that is why they had to take data management seriously and why individuals are being trained at the grassroots level.

He further said that after the training, community champions such as the youth, women and Persons  with Disability will be brought on broad to be part of the next cohort to be trained by chiefs, so that they could own the process and for sustainability.

“Facts are stubborn and that is why we as National Government are doing what we can to ensure that service delivery at the grassroot level is delivered as planned,” noted Makokha.

He stated that as a government they had achieved immense progress especially in the implementation of the vision 2030, where the current rating is at 61.9 percent citing that the current administration had contributed greatly to the achievement.

“In 15 years, the progress in implementation was only at 40 percent, while the 21.9 percent had been achieved in four years, since the year 2022 to currently where we are at,” cited the PS.

He further expressed that projects that are being launched are not imagined projects, but are long-term planned projects, adding that they were putting together the success and achievement of Vision 2030, which would be shared especially in the upcoming Mashujaa day celebrations in Eldoret as from October 12 to October 20th 2026.

He said that for any country to develop at the desired speed, infrastructure has to be developed and then digital development, citing that in the current training they had eliminated a manual system that had been very cumbersome, but now have an application developed called the Grassroot data collection system that is installed on mobile phones to the trainees that has Geographic Information System (GIS), with capability to know a project’s whereabouts, its status, the  person in charge and the challenges in real time.

He concluded by commenting on the rising menace of Gender Based Violence (GBV) in Western region, particularly Vihiga County saying that as a department they plan to roll out research through Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) that would collect data to help understand the root cause of why rates of GBV are prevalent, and what needed to be done differently, and that can only be informed by data.

Earlier on the PS alongside his team, paid courtesy  call to the Vihiga County Commissioner (CC), Jeremiah Gicheru and the local security team.

Gicheru said as NGAO, they are committed to ensuring that government projects are  implemented on time for the benefit of the people.

On security, the CC acknowledged the rising cases of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) in the region and asked the Chiefs to be on the lookout.

He further called upon parents to the victims of SGBV and the victims themselves to report the cases and advised them to go through the court of law for legal action to be taken and avoid Kangaroo systems.

Gicheru assured that his team was working closely with residents to ensure eradication of SGBV cases, so that residents can live in peace.

by Florence Oteng’o and Yvonne Misango