By Staff Writer | Wajir Today | Tuesday, 25 November 2025
Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi on Tuesday delivered a State of the County Address, outlining what he described as a transformative three-year journey marked by reforms in health services, water access, infrastructure and fiscal management.
Speaking before a special sitting of the County Assembly, the Governor said his administration entered office with a pledge to restore order in county governance and rebuild public confidence after years of institutional decline.
He told the Assembly that Wajir had begun to turn a corner. Hospitals previously under-equipped were now functional, water shortages were being addressed through rapid drilling of boreholes, and financial systems once mired in opacity had been stabilised and modernised.
“We made commitments to improve services and strengthen our institutions,” he said. “I am pleased to report that we have honoured that mandate and continue to honour it.”
The Governor anchored his speech on health, a sector he said had suffered the effects of neglect, weak infrastructure and underfunding.
He said that the county crafted a comprehensive roadmap that set out to elevate Wajir County Referral Hospital to Level 5 status and upgrade eight Level 3 facilities. The result, he said, has been an unprecedented expansion of Wajir’s healthcare infrastructure.
In his address, the governor said the referral hospital has undergone transformation with a fully equipped blood transfusion centre, a modern mortuary and a refurbished accident and emergency unit. He added that new diagnostic technologies, upgraded theatre units, an expanded laundry house with industrial-grade machines, and ongoing construction of an MRI block have further strengthened the facility’s capacity.
Abdullahi said seven upgraded Level 4 facilities were currently undergoing solarisation to secure reliable power for critical services. He described these developments as the most significant health infrastructure expansion in the county’s history.
He credited the enactment of the Facilities Improvement Financing Act allowing hospitals to generate and spend their own revenue, a change he called “a historic moment in our health financing landscape.”
Preventive health care also featured in his address where he said fifty-four dispensaries that had been shuttered in previous years have now reopened. The installation solar-powered vaccine refrigerators has pushed immunization coverage, a shift he termed essential in protecting children from deadly but preventable diseases.
The Governor also highlighted progress in the education sector, citing that his administration has constructed new ECDE classrooms and provided instructional materials to young learners.
The county’s decades-old struggle with water scarcity dominated a major portion of his speech. He reported that there are currently 377 functional boreholes, with an additional 27 ready for commissioning. He acknowledged persistent gaps, noting that several villages continue to rely on water trucking because new settlements have stretched the demand.
Nevertheless, he pointed to major pipeline rehabilitation and expansion projects from the 18-kilometre Anole line to the 42-kilometre Sarman–Tarbaj corridor and new household connections that have begun easing shortages.
The Governor also reported that under the Horn of Africa Underground Water Resilience Project, Wajir is set to receive investments, covering seventeen sites with borehole rehabilitation, expansion of waterworks and installation of hybrid reverse osmosis plants. Groundbreaking for the first batch is expected in early December.
Abdullahi also addressed Wajir town’s acute water shortage, revealing that hydrological surveys and test drilling have begun to identify a sustainable source.
Infrastructure development formed another pillar of his address. The Governor said, the county is maintaining all existing roads and expanding tarmac into the settlements of Wagberi, Halane, Jogoo, Barwaqo, Shalete and Hodhan.
On land management, Abdullahi highlighted the completion of local physical and land-use development plans and the surveying of seven informal settlements within Wajir municipality. He said more than 4,500 plot owners have been verified and are awaiting allotment letters, adding the the county has also developed a digital Land Information Management System.
The governor acknowledged inheriting messy books and incomplete pending bills but said the finance team had since rebuilt the system from initiation to final payment. He celebrated Wajir’s dramatic rise from a 0 per cent score in the 2022 Budget Transparency Survey to 74 per cent in 2023 and 77 per cent in 2024, ranking the county fifth nationally.
The Governor attributed these reforms to a culture of accountability, saying they had also revived the county’s own-source revenue, which jumped from KSh 36 million in 2021/22 to a record KSh 329 million last year. “This is no mean feat,” he said
Governor Ahmed Abdullahi pledged to sustain the momentum, insisting that the county’s challenges from climate shocks to rapid settlement growth require long-term planning.
