Ebola hampers Kakata City benefits

Kakata City Mayor Eddie Z. Murphy says the deadly Ebola Virus Disease or EVD has stalled benefits from a sister-city relationship between Kakata and the city of Brooklyn Park in the United States of America.

It may be recalled that a few years back, Kakata City established a sister-city relationship with Brooklyn Park that is geared toward bringing more benefits to Kakata and Margibi County in general.

The establishment of the relationship came to life as a result of engagement made by Mayor Eddie Z Murphy and his Administrative Assistance Gbarngo Eddie Seboe during a visit to the United States.

Legitimizing the relationship, the Liberian Government and the Government of the United States signed an agreement to ensure that each city upholds its part of the agreement strongly. During the signing ceremony, which took place at the Administrative Building in Kakata, Brooklyn Park City Mayor Jeffrey Lundi promised the City of Kakata many things, including health and education, among others.

But speaking to reporters in Kakata recently in his office, Mayor Murphy, who is one of the brains behind the relationship, blamed Ebola for delay in reaping benefits from the sister-city relationship between the two cities.

He said the beneficial aspect must have started before the Ebola but the plan changed because of the outbreak here in 2014, which also brought many things to an abrupt stop. According to him, Brooklyn Park is working on bringing the benefits to Kakata, but it will take a little longer.

He maintained that the American city also wanted to provide technical support to the Booker Washington Institute or BWI in Kakata, specifically in the area of health and other things. Mayor Murphy however called on the Margibians and Liberians in general to exercise patience as Brooklyn Park is still exerting efforts to come back to Liberia.

By Ramsey N. Singbeh, Jr. in Margibi-Editing by Jonathan Browne