DIRECTORATE OF SPECIAL PROGRAMS

OVERVIEW

The Directorate of Special Programs was established in the year 2018 and is domiciled in the Office of the Governor. The Directorate is tasked with two key mandates which includes and not limited to:

1. Coordination of public participation and civic education across the county through the legally established structures and frameworks. The key objective is to ensure that the citizens of Meru are well informed and are able to equally participate in governance to their smallest unit. To achieve this, the County Government of Meru in collaboration with stakeholders has established Public Participation Act, Public participation and Civic education guidelines, public participation units which includes the ward development and coordination committees, sub county development and coordination committees, county development and coordination committees and the Meru Economic and Social Council. Additionally, the county has established market and town committees as well as the municipality board this in addition to the various other boards and committees which have been established across the various county sectors. The County Government of Meru has also collaborated with the various NGOs, CBOs, FBOs and other citizen groups to form a caucus dubbed the Meru CSO Network.
2. Disaster Risk Reduction and Management in the county through putting up structures and mobilizing resources that will enable effective and timely response to disasters, prevention and mitigation of potential risks and disasters as well rebuilding of livelihoods and resilience among the affected communities and or individuals. The County Government has to date established, equipped and staffed 4 fire and rescue service stations in the county. These includes Meru, Timau, Maua and Nkubu and is in the process of establishing more such like stations to ensure the emergency and rescue services get closest to the people of Meru for effective and timely response. The county has developed a disaster Management Act, DRRM policy, Protocols for MCIM, capacity building programs for both fire and rescue staff and the community members among other guidelines and protocols that aide in Disaster Risk Management. The County has signed a working MoU with Kenya Redcross to collaborate in disaster preparedness, response and recovery. The county intends to bring in more partners specifically in Disaster Risk Management. Additionally the county has an partnership with the Polish Aid International and Bedfordshire fire Service UK who have continuously supported the County of Meru with firefighting equipment and advanced skills training to our fire and rescue staff.