The Department of Economic Planning through the Directorate of Monitoring and Evaluation joined forces with a team from the County Attorney’s office to review the Statistics, Monitoring, and Evaluation policies.

The Ag. Director for Monitoring and Evaluation, John Ekaru, presented the two policies to the team saying, the county invests many resources in the programs and projects to benefit the residents, justifying the need for the government to articulate a supportive monitoring and evaluation policy framework that communicates results and services being rendered to the people by the County Government and its partners.

He also added that the policy is expected to strengthen the implementation of the constitutional provisions on Monitoring and Evaluation in Turkana County.

Ekaru further mentioned that the Constitution of Kenya, the Public Finance Management Act (PFM), and the County Government Act, 2012 among other legal documents, provide the basis for monitoring and evaluation as an important part of operationalizing government activities to ensure transparency, integrity and accountability principles are embraced in resource allocation and management at devolved levels of Government.

This policy, he said, will go a long way in ensuring that decisions in the county are based on facts.

The Director was happy to say Turkana County was among the first counties to draft the M&E Policy in 2016. However, he said, has since lagged in its approval and operationalization.

The Assistant Director for Monitoring and Evaluation, Michael Ekwanga, illustrated that the Statistics Policy is an effective way of using data-based information for decision-making in the planning and development of the County.

Ekwanga said the policy outlines strategies to be undertaken to establish a county statistical system for the production and dissemination of statistical information for planning and development.

He also stated that the statistics policy contains specific measures and interventions that include legal and institutional frameworks that will be put in place to address challenges and issues the statistical system faces.

The policy, Ekwanga noted, is anchored on the Constitution of Kenya 2010, The National Statistics Act, of 2006, and the Data Protection Act, of 2019, among others.

The Director for Legal Services, Ekai Nabenyo, committed to finalizing the review of the two policies and advising accordingly in the next two weeks.

The staff in the two Departments were present during the review meeting.