Mbale Town is set for a major facelift after Governor Dr. Wilber Ottichilo launched the second phase of beautification of the town. He was flanked by his Deputy Dr. Patrick Saisi, Lands Committee Chair in the Assembly Hon. Ukiru and a host of Members of The County Assembly.

While addressing residents, the Governor assured the residents that the contractor awarded to carry out the exercise is upto task and that the designs used are going to make Mbale a better town. "I tasked my officers to competitively source a contractor and we are lucky to have gotten one who even recently did the beautification for Kisumu town. In the near future it will be good for us to be referring to our towns as cities just like the other people do. " said the County Boss.

The county boss further noted that the whole exercise will approximately cost Kenya shillings 200 million. He urged the residents of Mbale to accord the contractor necessary support especially the market vendors who will be the most affected.

Deputy Governor, Dr. Patrick Saisi urged the youth to seek casual jobs from the contractor and to ensure they deliver services effectively to avoid cases of manpower being outsourced. "When such a project is proposed in our county, let us embrace it for the sake of having development that will eventually be of benefit to us as a society. " said the Deputy Governor.

The second phase of Mbale beautification is projected to be done in a year's time according to the Vihiga Municipal Manager Andrew Ahuga. Construction of footpaths, erecting of high mast floodlights, street lighting along Kisumu Kakamega highway from Lunyerere to Majengo, rehabilitation of drainage systems will be among the projects to be undertaken in the second phase of Mbale Town beautification.

Vihiga Governor Dr. Wilber Ottichilo has praised the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) saying that it will be able to amend the constitution hence allowing more funds to flow into counties and for counties to have their own IFMIS system.

He also reiterated that his administration has been able to come up with a new County Government Structure and also undertaking human audit to mitigate the bloated wage bill being experienced in the county and inadequate technical staff challenges. 'I am hopeful that Kenyans will support the amendment of the constitution for a better Kenya,' said Ottichilo.

Dr. Ottichilo has also promised health workers that salary delays will soon be a thing of the past as their promotions are being worked on by his administration in the next financial year and urged them to continue with the good job they are doing since the deadly virus is yet to be contained in the country. He has also expressed his sincere gratitude to the fore front health workers in the county for their exemplary efforts in helping residents prepare for the for the novel corona virus despite the challenges they are facing.

'We shall forever be indebted for your kindness, hard work and resilience', said Ottichilo.

Since the deadly virus is here with us and will be for a long time, Dr. Ottichilo has urged Vihiga residents to accept several changes that that have been put in place by the Ministry of Health and those that will occur with time including our culture in order to save humanity.

Despite the changes the county has also trained health workers in all five sub-county health facilities including community health volunteers, established screening points along our entry border points, launched fumigation exercises that is ongoing in all our major markets, set up command centre that receives call of any suspected cases and monitors covid 19 emergencies, purchased thermo guns, oxygen concentrators and personal protective equipment and set up three isolation wards to manage any corona case.

In the spirit of Madaraka Day and the devolved system of governance at the county level, the county has also made major strides in all departments. Governor Ottichilo cited that his administration has implemented development projects across all wards not forgetting flagship projects as captured in the 2018-2020 County Integrated Development Plan.

Dr. Ottichilo also took the opportunity to eulogize veteran zilizopendwa musician John Nzeze Amutabi who passed on 30th May 2020 terming him a legend.