All of us know that the traditional roles of the Senate as per the Kenya Constitution 2010 are to represent the interests of the county, participate in law-making and approving bills related to the devolved governments and determining the revenue allocation to counties among other responsibilities.
While the above are the main responsibilities for the Senate; we need to have a social dimension if we have to improve the lives of our people.
Social development means investing in people. I do remember when I was the Governor of Tharaka Nithi County, I adopted the Pro-poor Agenda and I believe it worked well.
Social development requires us to remove the barriers which hinder development so that the citizens can walk towards achieving their dreams with confidence and dignity. It’s all about refusing to accept that people who are poor will remain poor forever.
I am strongly convinced that every person in TNC can have an opportunity to grow and develop own skills and contribute to society in a meaningful way.
If people eat well and are healthy, well-educated and trained to enter the labour market, they will automatically be able to meet their basic needs and benefit the whole society of Tharaka Nithi.
It is, therefore, the cardinal duty of the Senator together with other elected leaders to ensure that Early Childhood Development programs are well planned to ensure our children have a good foundation to succeed in life.
The Senator must also ensure that the citizens of his county are safe from both in and outside aggression. Therefore the need to focus on the family life of those living along the disputed Meru-Tharaka Nithi boundary is key.
We need families in these areas to live peacefully for a productive society. We all need to look beyond the government and develop our people by sharing responsibilities with organized community groups such as; universities, the business community in our areas and most importantly, being part of the solution and not always thinking that Nairobi has the final say.
–Former Tharaka Nithi Governor Samuel Ragwa and 2022 Senator hopeful–
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