Nyandarua County Bussiness pioneer challenge

Goals and Objectives

As with most similarly conceived projects, the Pioneers Enterprise Challenge main objective is to align the youth and women to the greater national goals entrenched in Vision 2030.

The Goal of the challenge can be summarily given as ‘to empower the youth and women of Nyandarua County with the absolute aim of enabling them to bring social economic change to the people of Nyandarua’.

To create a structured platform to attract innovative business ideas and nurture youth and women into globally competitive entrepreneurs

• 1. To identify entrepreneurial or innovative ideas from the youth and women through a competitive process.
• 2. To mentor, incubate and encourage revolutionary ideas which will encourage a culture of entrepreneurship and self reliance in the target groups
•  3. To create and facilitate funding of investable ideas from eligible groups, companies and individuals.
• 4.  To continually seek and sustainably partner with credible individuals, institutions and companies to achieve the overall goal of the challenge.

Eligible persons are advised to select and submit a business plan in one of the 5 pre-selected categories outline below.

•  Agribusiness
•  Tourism (local and eco-tourism)
•  ICT
•  Infrastructure
•  Environment

• Youth and women ( either individuals or groups) participate in business idea writing competition OR existing businesses that apply for competition are evaluated at the ward level.

• The Business Idea Competition is open to all youth and women aged 18 – 35 years in Kenya as long as they are willing to implement their business plan in Nyandarua upon winning.
• The applicants can be either individual(s) or entities formed by youth and/ or women (e.g. registered business, companies, self help groups, Saccos etc).
• Interested candidates must apply online (fill an online form and upload a business plan) by visiting www.nyandarua.go.ke by 20th January, 2016.

The challenge will have two categories:

•  New Business Idea generation ( Start –Up)
•  Infant SME (not more than 3 years old) but in need of expansion and consolidation

Auditor-General criticizes Nyandarua county for favouring Kikuyus over other tribes

The Nyandarua County government is on the spot over its staff ethnic composition.

According to a report by the Auditor-General, the County Public Service Board has failed to meet the 30 per cent constitutional threshold for employment of people from minority communities, and has favoured one group.

In his 2013/2014 report, Auditor-General Edward Ouko says only six out of the 202 employees on the County Public Service Board’s payroll were from minority communities during the period.

The document says the Kikuyu community had the largest employment share, at 97 per cent, in contravention of a constitutional provision on the ethnic distribution in county authorities.

In May last year, members of the Turkana community living in Nyandarua stormed several government offices in Ol Kalou Town, protesting against discrimination in employment and the issuing of national identity cards.

DISCRIMINATION

The board was criticised for declining to employ a candidate for the post of ward administrator on the grounds that she was not from Nyandarua.

“The candidate, Jemima W. Kimani, was interviewed and shortlisted for the post of ward administrator together with 20 other candidates. However, she was later disqualified on the basis of not being a resident of Nyandarua County,” says the auditor.

Some members of the Turkana community claimed that none of them had been employed by the county government.

“We are the second largest community in the county after the Kikuyus but none of us has been given any employment in the county government or in the county commissioner’s office,” a member of the group, Mr John Imbua, said during the protests.

They also stormed the Registrar of Persons office, saying their children were being denied ID cards in the county.

“When our children apply for ID cards, they are asked to go to Lodwar to register there because their parents' identity papers show they were born in Turkana,” said Mr Joseph Longis, one of the protesters.