ELDORET: Friday 12th May 2023

We have today signed the cooperation agreement among the eight North Rift Economic Bloc (NOREB) counties, this agreement will activate a NOREB Bill that will be presented to the County Assemblies and form the basis under which NOREB will get legal backing. NOREB has been in existence for more than five years without a legal framework. We have therefore come up with a NOREB Bill – 2023 that will be adopted and ratified by the various county governments.

Our bloc seeks to build on the competitive advantages of the differing economies of our counties through fostering intra-regional trade as well as taking advantage of economies of scale from the various counties. This region is known for pastoralism, Tourism, Agriculture, Logistics, Education, Health, Sports, ICT and other natural resources. The economic bloc is set to strengthen the North Rift Partner counties through trade and joint investments.

North Rift region has diverse climatic conditions that enable the region to produce a wide range of products and services in the different sectors of the economy. There are certain areas within the region that experience famine and persistent drought hence there is a need to undertake joint ventures to mitigate against the effects of climate change and other challenges like insecurity and cattle rustling that are eating into our economy.

NOREB’s vision of creating a Haven of Economic Prosperity under our motor of “Growing Together” will be achieved when we widen and deepen our economic, social and cultural integration and enhance trade, investment, tourism, competitiveness and economies of scale through synergy while leveraging on the strength of individual counties.

The bloc will act as a one-stop shop for investors seeking opportunities in the region. The integration will also enable individual counties that are sometimes too small to leverage economies of scale, to jointly attract and implement large projects. The integration shall also be exercised in a way that supports national economic policies, our local economic activities across the county boundaries and the enhance national mobility of goods, services, capital or labour hence spurring growth and transforming the lives of our people.

Through NOREB, we propose a sector approach model that will see each county championing a sector as follows;

• Proposed Sector Champions
• Trade, Investment & Urbanisation
• Health
• ICT & Digital Economy
• Blue Economy
• Livestock
• Agriculture
• Peace, Security & Cohesion
• Climate Change
• Sports & Tourism
• Human Capital Development
• Education
• Infrastructure
• Youth & Creative Industry
• Gender

BANDITRY AND PEACE

As you are all aware, the national government is conducting a security operation to try and flush out the bandits and clear their cells within the five (5) North Rift Counties classified as disturbed since March 2023. We have been keenly following the operation at West Pokot, Turkana, Elgeiyo Mrakwet, Braingo and Samburu so that we take a complementary approach.

We have organised through NOREB a Peace Summit that will take pale in Trans Nzoia on the 8th and 9th of June 2023. This is aimed at convening political leaders, community leaders and development actors in the region to develop and agree on a common approach that will ensure that there is long-term peace in the region. We have talked to various partners including religious organizations
The Peace Summit is expected to come up with a raft of ideas that will see the region have a more localised intervention to that security issues that will promote peace in a sustained way. As a people of this region, we will propose from the summit a structure that will offer a different platform that is informed by the understanding of the region, the communities and the underlying causes of the conflict and come up with genuine and sustainable remedies.