The sector profile gives a brief overview of the major key sectors in the county that are the major driving force towards achieving vision 2030.These sectors includes: Agriculture and Rural Development, Energy, Infrastructure and ICT, General Economic, Commercial and Labour Affairs, Health, Education, Public Administration and international Relations, Social Protection Culture and Recreation, Governance Justice Law and Order and Environmental Protection Water and Housing.
Agriculture and Rural Development
The Agriculture and Rural Development Sector comprises the following sub-sectors: Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries Development, Cooperatives, Lands, forestry and wildlife. The sector contributes about 60% to the county’s economy and therefore plays a major role towards poverty reduction and creation of employment opportunities. The sector is expected to play a significant role towards achievement of the targets set in the County Development Plan. The goals of the sector include: creation of an enabling environment for competition; enhanced efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery; and ensuring sustainable management of resources. The strategic objectives of the sector include: raising productivity and profitability through efficient allocation of resources; accelerating growth for sustainable socio-economic development; and creating an enabling environment for effective private sector participation.
Under agriculture, ninety per cent of the land is arable land. The main crops grown include beans, maize, tea, coffee, finger millet, potatoes, pyrethrum, sugarcane and groundnuts.. This sub sector however has to deal with high cost of inputs, crop diseases, pests and lack of affordable credit facilities to farmers.
The county has active farmers’ cooperative societies.
Livestock production is guided by the objective to enhance and promote sustainable livestock production, marketing of livestock and livestock by-products and value addition through appropriate policy and legal framework while conserving the natural resources. It is characterized by breeding of cattle mainly dairy and zebu. Poultry kept include: indigenous chicken, layers, broiler, ducks, turkeys and geese. Dairy and local goats are also kept in the county. Sheep are kept for wool while bees are kept in Kenya Top Bee Hive (KTBH), Lang troth and Log hives. Rabbits and donkeys are also kept but the numbers are small. This sub sector however is faced with the challenge of lack of fodder for livestock since land sizes are small and the cost of inputs such as pesticides is high.
The main species of fish cultured are warm water species which include Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), Cat fish (Clarias gariepinus) and red belly tilapia (Tilapia Zillii).with the introduction of the fish enterprise productivity programme under the economic stimulus package, a lot of fish ponds have been constructed and their progress is very impressive. The only challenge faced is the sourcing and breeding of fingerlings to supply farmers adequately.
There are four categories of SACCOs in the county namely; Rural, Multipurpose, Urban and Jua kali. In this sub-sector, cooperative societies are sensitized on marketing and value addition. They improve market access and marketing efficiency in the county. Some of the challenges faced in this sub-sector are financial mismanagement and leadership wrangles.
General Economic, Commercial and Labour Affairs
This sector comprises of Trade, Tourism, and industrialization, Labour, Regional Development Authorities, Research and Development.
This sector plays a very crucial role in the economic development of the county. The sector generates a lot of income and employment as it absorbs both skilled and unskilled labour. The interface among factors of production in this sector leads to various productive activities yielding many goods and services for consumption within the county and for export to other parts of the country. The county acts as a commercial hub for the southern Nyanza region. It also serves as a wholesale focal point for almost all merchandise trade within the region and beyond. Kisii Town also provides the region with banking facilities. However, one area that still has a great potential yet to be exploited is the area of tourist hotel development.
The mining of Kisii soapstone is an important economic activity in the county which provides employment to over 5000 people both directly and indirectly. This mineral is mainly used in making carvings which are sold locally and abroad. The marketing of the soapstone products is partly done by Tabaka soapstone cooperative society. There is also a great potential existing in commercial brick making in some areas of the county but its full exploitation is inhibited by lack of organized cooperative societies
Energy, Infrastructure and ICT
This sector comprises of such subsector as Roads, Transport, Energy public works and information and Communications.
The overall goal of the sector is to have a well developed and maintained physical infrastructure for rapid and sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. This sector works to facilitate adequate provision of roads and buildings through policy development, providing logistical and technical support in road construction and maintenance, mobilization of resources from both the public and private sectors for construction and maintenance of roads and buildings. The sector also assists in dissemination of research findings and promotion of wide application of innovative materials and technologies. It also develops and maintains both office and residential accommodation of various government departments.
The roads and public works sub-sector is responsible for development, rehabilitation and maintenance of the road network in the county (classified, urban and rural roads as well as roads in National Parks and reserves). The county is hilly and has clay soil hence this makes road construction expensive. The availability of devolved funds from government such as Fuel Levy and CDF has contributed greatly in opening up and rehabilitation of roads in the county.
The energy sub-sector facilitates the provision of clean, affordable, reliable, secure and sustainable energy services for county development. Only 1.6% of the households in the county have electricity connection, 85.7% use wood fuel and 6% use kerosene. The number of households using wood fuel is large and this poses a threat to forests and water catchments. This calls for the Department of Renewable Energy to promote sources of renewable energy. Both fixed and mobile telephone services are offered by Telkom Kenya, Safaricom and Airtel. Features include Internet, EVDO, and VOIP, Call forwarding. There are 5 private courier services offered by Akamba courier services, G4 Securicor supplement, EMS speed post offered by Telkom Kenya; and several licensed stamp vendors across the county. The county has one library managed by the National Library services and Information Dissemination Centre under the Planning Office – Kisii central. Radio stations include Egesa Fm, Citizen, KBC, BBC, Ramogi and Easy FM all receivable. TV stations receivable include; KBC channel 1, Citizen TV, NSTV and KTN. Main challenges in this sector still remain inaccessibility to cyber cafes by rural population and vandalism of telecommunication equipments.
Research work carried out by Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and International Centre for Insects Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) contribute greatly to crop production in the county through the development of hybrid seeds. Continued support of agricultural research is therefore imperative in the attainment of the sector vision and mission
Environmental protection, Water and Housing
This Sector comprises of Environment and Mineral Resources, Water and Irrigation and Housing sub-sectors.
This sector consists of the water and irrigation; and the environment and mineral resources sub sectors. The water sub-sector promotes and supports integrated water resource management and development to enhance water availability and accessibility in the county. The county has two major water supplies namely Kisii Water Supply and Birongo Water Supply. Kisii Water Supply has two water intakes at Kegati along river Kuja in Kegati location, Kiogoro division which is entirely a pumping scheme; the other is along Nyakomisaro River in Bosongo location and is entirely a gravity scheme. Birongo Community Water Supply was constructed by the “Freedom from Hunger Walk Council” and was initially managed by the community but in the year 2007 the management of Gusii Water and Sanitation Company took over. There are also other relatively smaller water projects spread all over the county. Other sources of water include ground water, hand dug wells, boreholes, springs and rain water harvesting. However, the rapidly growing population of Kisii County poses a challenge as the available water and sanitation facilities are unable to provide the residents with clean water and sanitation services.
Education
The sub-sectors under the Education Sector are Education and Higher Education, Science and Technology
The overall goal of the education sub-sector is to achieve Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The sector has a total of 904 pre-primary schools, with a total enrolment of 41,239 pupils, 467 primary schools with a total average enrolment of 231,651 pupils, 334 secondary schools with a total average enrolment of 74,843.There are 6260 teachers in primary schools falling short by 1406 teachers. Secondary schools have 3,936 teachers falling short by 369 teachers. The county also has 21 tertiary learning institutions. Dropout rates are 11 %, 30.2% and 10.8% in pre-primary, Primary and Secondary schools respectively. The overall literacy rate is 60.8%.
Health
The Health Sector comprises of Medical Services and Public Health and Sanitation sub-sectors.
The overall goal of the health sub sector is to provide efficient and high quality health care system that is accessible, equitable and affordable for every person in the county. To achieve this, the following have been put in place; 71 Level 2 Hospitals, 18 Level 3 Hospitals and 8 Level 4 Hospitals and 1 Level 5 Hospital. HIV/Aids prevalence in the county is 5.4%.Contraceptive uptake is 70%. Some of the Constraints include; frequent shortage of blood in the blood bank, Low uptake of PMTCT services, inadequate space for VCT counselors and inadequate funding however there is skilled human resource to carry out all the curative and Preventive health service.
Governance, Justice, Law and Order
The county has two law courts, one GK prison and three police stations in Kisii town, Rioma, and Ogembo together with posts in Keumbu, Kiong’anyo, Nyamaiya, Etago, Ramasha, Gesonso, and Nyangusu to administer justice and enforce law and order. The prison facilities are overstretched due to high number of inmates. Security has become a serious issue in the county giving way to the emergence of militia groups such as Sungusungu and Chinkororo. There is one child rescue centre being constructed at Kisii central station to provide services to children who need special protection.
Public Administration and International Relations
The Public Administration and International Relations comprises of the following: Commission for constitution implementation, Police Commission, Foreign Affairs, Planning National, Finance, among others.
The County planning unit, the local authorities that is: Gusii county council and the Municipal council of Kisii and the county treasury are some of the departments that constitute this sector at the county level. The county planning unit is charged with the responsibilities of coordination and supervision of development projects in the county. This is achieved through monitoring and evaluating the implementation of development projects by government departments, the Constituency Development Fund and those undertaken by other development partners in the county. The primary goal of this sector is to ensure prudent and effective management of allocated funds and to avoid duplication of development efforts. The local authorities are also tasked with the role of fostering and supplementing the implementation of projects at the grass root levels.
Social protection Culture and Recreation
This sector comprises of the following sub sectors: National Heritage and Culture, Gender, Children and Social Development, Special Programmes, Youth Affairs and Sports.
Youth in the county form 31% of the total population. There are 1200 youth groups 80 of which received funding from Youth Fund and 760 micro enterprises owned by the youth in the county. However, unemployment and drug abuse still remains a challenge since 61% of the unemployed are the youth and 92% of the unemployed youth lack job training. 450 self help group and 1200 youth help and 1000 women groups are registered respectively carrying out activities in various sectors. Gusii stadium is used to promote sporting activities and for holding demonstrations for new technologies in various sectors for adoption by the communities.
The cultural department is tasked with the responsibility of registering cultural groups throughout Kisii County. These groups include non-educational institutions, choirs, dancers, artists, herbalists, and drama groups.
1.17 MTEF Sector profile
The sector profile gives a brief overview of the major key sectors in the county that are the major driving force towards achieving vision 2030.These sectors includes: Agriculture and Rural Development, Energy, Infrastructure and ICT, General Economic, Commercial and Labour Affairs, Health, Education, Public Administration and international Relations, Social Protection Culture and Recreation, Governance Justice Law and Order and Environmental Protection Water and Housing.
Agriculture and Rural Development
The Agriculture and Rural Development Sector comprises the following sub-sectors: Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries Development, Cooperatives, Lands, forestry and wildlife. The sector contributes about 60% to the county’s economy and therefore plays a major role towards poverty reduction and creation of employment opportunities. The sector is expected to play a significant role towards achievement of the targets set in the County Development Plan. The goals of the sector include: creation of an enabling environment for competition; enhanced efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery; and ensuring sustainable management of resources. The strategic objectives of the sector include: raising productivity and profitability through efficient allocation of resources; accelerating growth for sustainable socio-economic development; and creating an enabling environment for effective private sector participation.
Under agriculture, ninety per cent of the land is arable land. The main crops grown include beans, maize, tea, coffee, finger millet, potatoes, pyrethrum, sugarcane and groundnuts.. This sub sector however has to deal with high cost of inputs, crop diseases, pests and lack of affordable credit facilities to farmers.
The county has active farmers’ cooperative societies.
Livestock production is guided by the objective to enhance and promote sustainable livestock production, marketing of livestock and livestock by-products and value addition through appropriate policy and legal framework while conserving the natural resources. It is characterized by breeding of cattle mainly dairy and zebu. Poultry kept include: indigenous chicken, layers, broiler, ducks, turkeys and geese. Dairy and local goats are also kept in the county. Sheep are kept for wool while bees are kept in Kenya Top Bee Hive (KTBH), Lang troth and Log hives. Rabbits and donkeys are also kept but the numbers are small. This sub sector however is faced with the challenge of lack of fodder for livestock since land sizes are small and the cost of inputs such as pesticides is high.
The main species of fish cultured are warm water species which include Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), Cat fish (Clarias gariepinus) and red belly tilapia (Tilapia Zillii).with the introduction of the fish enterprise productivity programme under the economic stimulus package, a lot of fish ponds have been constructed and their progress is very impressive. The only challenge faced is the sourcing and breeding of fingerlings to supply farmers adequately.
There are four categories of SACCOs in the county namely; Rural, Multipurpose, Urban and Jua kali. In this sub-sector, cooperative societies are sensitized on marketing and value addition. They improve market access and marketing efficiency in the county. Some of the challenges faced in this sub-sector are financial mismanagement and leadership wrangles.
General Economic, Commercial and Labour Affairs
This sector comprises of Trade, Tourism, and industrialization, Labour, Regional Development Authorities, Research and Development.
This sector plays a very crucial role in the economic development of the county. The sector generates a lot of income and employment as it absorbs both skilled and unskilled labour. The interface among factors of production in this sector leads to various productive activities yielding many goods and services for consumption within the county and for export to other parts of the country. The county acts as a commercial hub for the southern Nyanza region. It also serves as a wholesale focal point for almost all merchandise trade within the region and beyond. Kisii Town also provides the region with banking facilities. However, one area that still has a great potential yet to be exploited is the area of tourist hotel development.
The mining of Kisii soapstone is an important economic activity in the county which provides employment to over 5000 people both directly and indirectly. This mineral is mainly used in making carvings which are sold locally and abroad. The marketing of the soapstone products is partly done by Tabaka soapstone cooperative society. There is also a great potential existing in commercial brick making in some areas of the county but its full exploitation is inhibited by lack of organized cooperative societies
Energy, Infrastructure and ICT
This sector comprises of such subsector as Roads, Transport, Energy public works and information and Communications.
The overall goal of the sector is to have a well developed and maintained physical infrastructure for rapid and sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. This sector works to facilitate adequate provision of roads and buildings through policy development, providing logistical and technical support in road construction and maintenance, mobilization of resources from both the public and private sectors for construction and maintenance of roads and buildings. The sector also assists in dissemination of research findings and promotion of wide application of innovative materials and technologies. It also develops and maintains both office and residential accommodation of various government departments.
The roads and public works sub-sector is responsible for development, rehabilitation and maintenance of the road network in the county (classified, urban and rural roads as well as roads in National Parks and reserves). The county is hilly and has clay soil hence this makes road construction expensive. The availability of devolved funds from government such as Fuel Levy and CDF has contributed greatly in opening up and rehabilitation of roads in the county.
The energy sub-sector facilitates the provision of clean, affordable, reliable, secure and sustainable energy services for county development. Only 1.6% of the households in the county have electricity connection, 85.7% use wood fuel and 6% use kerosene. The number of households using wood fuel is large and this poses a threat to forests and water catchments. This calls for the Department of Renewable Energy to promote sources of renewable energy. Both fixed and mobile telephone services are offered by Telkom Kenya, Safaricom and Airtel. Features include Internet, EVDO, and VOIP, Call forwarding. There are 5 private courier services offered by Akamba courier services, G4 Securicor supplement, EMS speed post offered by Telkom Kenya; and several licensed stamp vendors across the county. The county has one library managed by the National Library services and Information Dissemination Centre under the Planning Office – Kisii central. Radio stations include Egesa Fm, Citizen, KBC, BBC, Ramogi and Easy FM all receivable. TV stations receivable include; KBC channel 1, Citizen TV, NSTV and KTN. Main challenges in this sector still remain inaccessibility to cyber cafes by rural population and vandalism of telecommunication equipments.
Research work carried out by Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and International Centre for Insects Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) contribute greatly to crop production in the county through the development of hybrid seeds. Continued support of agricultural research is therefore imperative in the attainment of the sector vision and mission
Environmental protection, Water and Housing
This Sector comprises of Environment and Mineral Resources, Water and Irrigation and Housing sub-sectors.
This sector consists of the water and irrigation; and the environment and mineral resources sub sectors. The water sub-sector promotes and supports integrated water resource management and development to enhance water availability and accessibility in the county. The county has two major water supplies namely Kisii Water Supply and Birongo Water Supply. Kisii Water Supply has two water intakes at Kegati along river Kuja in Kegati location, Kiogoro division which is entirely a pumping scheme; the other is along Nyakomisaro River in Bosongo location and is entirely a gravity scheme. Birongo Community Water Supply was constructed by the “Freedom from Hunger Walk Council” and was initially managed by the community but in the year 2007 the management of Gusii Water and Sanitation Company took over. There are also other relatively smaller water projects spread all over the county. Other sources of water include ground water, hand dug wells, boreholes, springs and rain water harvesting. However, the rapidly growing population of Kisii County poses a challenge as the available water and sanitation facilities are unable to provide the residents with clean water and sanitation services.
Education
The sub-sectors under the Education Sector are Education and Higher Education, Science and Technology
The overall goal of the education sub-sector is to achieve Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The sector has a total of 904 pre-primary schools, with a total enrolment of 41,239 pupils, 467 primary schools with a total average enrolment of 231,651 pupils, 334 secondary schools with a total average enrolment of 74,843.There are 6260 teachers in primary schools falling short by 1406 teachers. Secondary schools have 3,936 teachers falling short by 369 teachers. The county also has 21 tertiary learning institutions. Dropout rates are 11 %, 30.2% and 10.8% in pre-primary, Primary and Secondary schools respectively. The overall literacy rate is 60.8%.
Health
The Health Sector comprises of Medical Services and Public Health and Sanitation sub-sectors.
The overall goal of the health sub sector is to provide efficient and high quality health care system that is accessible, equitable and affordable for every person in the county. To achieve this, the following have been put in place; 71 Level 2 Hospitals, 18 Level 3 Hospitals and 8 Level 4 Hospitals and 1 Level 5 Hospital. HIV/Aids prevalence in the county is 5.4%.Contraceptive uptake is 70%. Some of the Constraints include; frequent shortage of blood in the blood bank, Low uptake of PMTCT services, inadequate space for VCT counselors and inadequate funding however there is skilled human resource to carry out all the curative and Preventive health service.
Governance, Justice, Law and Order
The county has two law courts, one GK prison and three police stations in Kisii town, Rioma, and Ogembo together with posts in Keumbu, Kiong’anyo, Nyamaiya, Etago, Ramasha, Gesonso, and Nyangusu to administer justice and enforce law and order. The prison facilities are overstretched due to high number of inmates. Security has become a serious issue in the county giving way to the emergence of militia groups such as Sungusungu and Chinkororo. There is one child rescue centre being constructed at Kisii central station to provide services to children who need special protection.
Public Administration and International Relations
The Public Administration and International Relations comprises of the following: Commission for constitution implementation, Police Commission, Foreign Affairs, Planning National, Finance, among others.
The County planning unit, the local authorities that is: Gusii county council and the Municipal council of Kisii and the county treasury are some of the departments that constitute this sector at the county level. The county planning unit is charged with the responsibilities of coordination and supervision of development projects in the county. This is achieved through monitoring and evaluating the implementation of development projects by government departments, the Constituency Development Fund and those undertaken by other development partners in the county. The primary goal of this sector is to ensure prudent and effective management of allocated funds and to avoid duplication of development efforts. The local authorities are also tasked with the role of fostering and supplementing the implementation of projects at the grass root levels.
Social protection Culture and Recreation
This sector comprises of the following sub sectors: National Heritage and Culture, Gender, Children and Social Development, Special Programmes, Youth Affairs and Sports.
Youth in the county form 31% of the total population. There are 1200 youth groups 80 of which received funding from Youth Fund and 760 micro enterprises owned by the youth in the county. However, unemployment and drug abuse still remains a challenge since 61% of the unemployed are the youth and 92% of the unemployed youth lack job training. 450 self help group and 1200 youth help and 1000 women groups are registered respectively carrying out activities in various sectors. Gusii stadium is used to promote sporting activities and for holding demonstrations for new technologies in various sectors for adoption by the communities.
The cultural department is tasked with the responsibility of registering cultural groups throughout Kisii County. These groups include non-educational institutions, choirs, dancers, artists, herbalists, and drama groups.