Busia County government has set aside Kshs 50million for purchasing a 10,000-litre capacity fire engine for the Northern Corridor border town of Malaba town, Deputy Governor Moses Mulomi has said.
Speaking during the meeting with stakeholders on EAC integration process at Hotel Levantes in Amagoro, Mulomi revealed that the County Government has already allocated funds to purchase facilities for improving service delivery and trade at the border point.
“We have money already approved to buy specific comprehensive fire engine compartment machinery which will cover both foaming and water services,” he said.
The DG was responding to the challenges raised by cross-border transporters through their representative, Edwin Otieno. Otieno cited lack of facilities to contain emergencies like fire, duplication of verification roles in Kenya-Uganda One Stop Border Point and traffic jams as challenges transporters face in Malaba.
Busia County has one 10,000 litre capacity fire engine that serves Busia and Siaya Counties, and Eastern part of Uganda, thus straining the available resource in times of disaster. The new engine will serve Northern part of the County.
Compared to other Counties like Nairobi, Nakuru, Mombasa and Kiambu which inherited large capacity fire engines from their former local authorities’ city co, Busia inherited a small engine of 200-litre capacity.
Acknowledging the challenges traders face at the Malaba Open air market, Mulomi said that the County was working towards “designing and developing an appropriate, competitive and sheltered market for Malaba town.”
The meeting was presided over by Hon. Adan Mohamed, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of EAC and Regional Development, his Uganda counterpart Dr. Kirunda Kivejinja; and Susan Koech, PS in the Ministry of EAC and Regional Development.