NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 17 – Prime Minister Raila Odinga wants public institutions to diversify their income generation base to cope with the ravages of the prevailing global economic downturn.
He told state agencies to venture into commercial oriented initiatives to supplement their budget deficits with a view to ease their expenditure burden on the Exchequer.
The Premier said the government was working on modalities to identify and redress the priority areas which deserved urgent attention to avert fatalities due to the looming catastrophe.
“Public institutions must think out of the box and raise extra income to reduce reliance on the Exchequer especially now that national budget had been outstretched by food, water and other crises,” he said.
Mr Odinga told an inaugural ceremony of the rehabilitated Louise Leakey Auditorium at the National Museum that the government was not ready to compromise the provision of basic humanitarian needs of her citizenry.
He expressed optimism that the facelift at the facility was likely to inject a new lease of life to the wobbling income opportunities at the Museum.
“This state of the art auditorium which the government partnered with the private sector to develop is set to attract both local and international clientele unlike the period preceding the changes,” The Premier asserted.
He said the renovation at the old auditorium to suite modern requirements was in good taste contrary to widely held notion that such historical sites must be preserved and untouched.
Mr Odinga said although historians believed in retaining archival findings in their very original nature, there was need to improve the old sites in tandem with the demands of the 21st Century.
He said the auditorium whose unique feature now places the facility at the helm of the Sub Saharan Africa would capture the regional market due to the fact that the museum hosts archeological fossils of mankind.
The premier commended the Safaricom mobile service providers for their Sh21.8 million contribution towards the exercise under the Public Private Partnership and urged other organizations to emulate.
Heritage and Culture Minister William Ntimama and Safaricom Chief Executive officer Michael Joseph graced the colourful occasion.
