The County Government of Uasin Gishu on Tuesday formally took over the management of Kenya Library Services’ Eldoret Branch.
A ceremony to hand over the Eldoret Library to the County was attended by Governor Jonathan Bii, his Deputy Eng. John Barorot, senior county officials as well as officials from the Kenya National Library Services (KNLS) and Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee (IGRTC).
Speaking during the event, Governor Bii said the transfer of the Library Services to the County is a significant nod to the fact that devolving was working.
“We shall work towards making this Library an envy of the region,” the Governor pledged. “We will plan to expand the Library,” he added.
The Eldoret Library that sits on a piece of land valued at Ksh430 million has a capacity to hold 200 people at a go.
Decentralise library services
It also has 17 staff that have also been transferred from being employees of the National Government and will now form part of the county staff.
Aside from a pledge to expand the Eldoret Library, the Governor also noted that they will work on modernizing it and decentralising it to the sub-county level.
On his part, Deputy Governor Barorot assured that the facility was now in safe hands.
He noted that the county will work on inculcating ICT within the existing Library Services so as to offer services to a wide range of locals.
“We want to provide LIbrary Services to all carders – but we will do so electronically,” Eng Barorot said.
County Executive Committee Member for Education, Vocational Training, Gender, Social protection and Culture Dr. Janeth Kosgei said a Library was a key element in not only the country’s education system but also in culture.
She said the county has a vision of linking the library to all the existing ICT centres at the sub-county level.
Library services a devolved function
“Our vision is to do modernization of this facility to make it inclusive and dynamic to serve all,” the CECM said.
“The library has been important and served many generations. We are happy that the services are now under the County Government,” added the Uasin Gishu County Assembly Culture Committee Chairperson MCA Richard Kering.
County Secretary Edwin Bett said the transfer of the Library Services to the County was in line with the constitution.
Uasin Gishu becomes the 33rd devolved unit to take over management of the services as per the constitutional provision which is a devolved function.
All the assets that were under the Kenya National Library Services now belong to the county.
