Meru Governor H.E. Kiraitu Murungi has this morning held a consultative meeting with officials of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), who are holding a forum constituting NGOs, public and private sector stakeholders from the three counties of Meru, Tharaka Nithi and Embu.

The Governor outlined the various structures that his administration has already put in place to promote self reliance and sustainability of community development projects, such as reorganizing the Government to be all-inclusive, creation of town boards and market committees to give power to local communities to take charge of their own programs which include cleaning, greening, organizing and developing of their towns and markets, among others.

"We are progressively working on implementing all the 14 promises we gave to the people of Meru when we sought mandate of leadership, but we also realize that addressing all the issues they face, can only be achieved by creating a long term strategic plan, which we have already developed, called Meru Vision 2040 and we will unveil next month. The vision is a blueprint which will guide county development over the next 20 years, and has been developed by Meru Social and Economic Council(MESC), comprising top professionals and leaders who are sons and daughters of our County," said the Governor.

Governor Kiraitu also lauded USAID for bringing on board stakeholders from the three counties, noting that this is well in line with the already established Eastern Mount Kenya Economic block where he and his two colleagues from Embu and Tharaka Nithi, have resolved to work together for development of the region.

The USAID is currently developing its strategic development plan for the next fives years, and in the new structure, the organization aims at directly engaging stakeholders in the public sector, private sector and civil society to compare and contrast viewpoints, even as it aims to inculcate self reliance and sustainability of the development projects in all counties across Kenya.

USAID KEA Representative Madam Patricia Ochieng said the consultative process will deepen the organization’s understanding of development successes and opportunities, to enable them leverage on existing foundations as well as identify critical challenges and barriers to community and county self- reliance in development.