Turkana’s Department of Trade Gender and Youth Affairs has finalized the vetting of Youth and Women groups in Turkana West and North sub counties for the Empowerment Fund.

Mark Amiyo, Acting chief Officer of the department said that the exercise has been success in these counties including Kibish and was convinced that this year’s disbursement will go to deserving and compliant groups as envisioned by the laws of the fund.

Noting that the revolving fund was part of Governor Lomorukai agenda of empowering women and youth in the community by increasing access to capital for entrepreneurial activities, Mark Amiyo said that compliance was mandatory to increase the number of beneficiaries over time.

Mark Amiyo said that the exercise adopted a public participation approach that involved sub county, ward and village Administrators to enable collection of valuable suggestions for making the funds much better in subsequent disbursement.

Chief Amiyo challenged the administrators to strengthen grassroot level monitoring of groups on a regular basis owing to their proximity to them.

Turkana West sub County administrator Dr Joshua Napoco lauded the department for involving them in the exercise which he termed as a learning mission for improved ability to guiding meaningful change.

Napoco said that the administrative teams had acquired sufficient expertise for guiding upcoming groups in respect to group Governance, documentation and legal compliance.

Having divided the team into three groups for the expansive Turkana West and North areas, Napoco added that the administrative team had also learnt of the physical addresses of the groups and documented their contact addresses for future reference.

The vetting exercise also included the fund board members led by chairperson Patricia Kebo and Director of Youth and women affairs Mollen Onderi.