from Judy Miriga
Folks,
The Local Community are stakeholders of any Development taking place in their areas.
1) Any Community Development which is bound to utilize community resources, must include shared interests of all stakeholders fairly in both short and long term.
2) Any development that which involves the community must engage all threshold of concerns and interest of the local community
3) Any development must commit sustainable Partnership in Education, job security, Health, Environmental security, Security, Social and Economic benefit to all stakeholders must be assured in both long and short-term.
4) Any sustainable development must incorporate Partnership management representation on constant reporting for transparency and accountability
5) The Government holds security of “Trust” for the interest of the Local Community Natural Wealth.
Therefore, if these were not taken into consideration at the time of negotiation, then something is wrong and it cannot claim it is producing enough food when people are going hungry. The basic interest and concern of Dominion Farm is to make profitable business not based on the Community……which was not in the initital plan, and without which conflict will be far from being resolved. The community feels they have been cheated and so they have a right to claim back their Resources possibly for fresh renegotiating or otherwise……..and anything less than that the Community has all rights to stop the project of Dominion Farm until agreement is concluded.
I am made to understand that Dominion first arrived as a religious group in search for souls to rescue. In otherwords, it was a Non Profit making undertaking. It beats logics how quickly it turned to Profit making supplying international markets and abandoned its earlier agenda. in 2008 it laid off 100 employees, and recently it has a problem with Siaya Teachers Office Block. Where are the prospective agreement to protect interests of the Local community? The community does not profit from Dominion farm but are into more problems than before. This by any standard is not a profitable short or longterm objective for Siaya Community can bank on….it is not a Development Agenda that can be trusted…….This is a rip-off business to profit the Rich and the powerful…….A lot must be done to build public confidense. People must be told if Dominion are engaged on GMO Ethanol for petrol, rather for International business and not for local human consumption…..a line must be drawn. It is the Truth that shall set us free………
This has nothing to do with US FACT FINDING TOUR IN THE SIAYA/NYANZA area……
Thank you all,
Cheers ….!!!
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
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From: okil@ . . .
Subject: Should FBI investigate the diaspora on theattempttokillanAmerica investor in Siaya-County?
Date: Sunday, August 28, 2011, 11:56 AM
Jakaneya,
Considering the joke called Lake Basin Development Authority, Dominion could not have been a bad idea. However, I have always worried that, looking at the plethora of local problems it has had to deal with, the legal papers regulating it, the local Council and the affected community may not have been upto speed!
Nyamodi Ochieng-Nyamogo.
From: “maurice oduor”
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2011 14:31:42 +0000
Subject: Should FBI investigate the diaspora on the attempttokillanAmerica investor in Siaya-County?
Okil,
You can be sure I’ll be talking to the good Reverend Okoth today. I personally need to know more about this Dominion project.
Rev, please flash me sometimes today.
Courage,
Oduor Maurice
From: okil@ . . .
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2011 06:20:24 +0000
Subject: Should FBI investigate the diaspora on the attempt to kill anAmerica investor in Siaya-County?
Ndebele,
I was inclined to ignore this since I come from Alego-Usonga and I am aware of the endless intrigues involving Dominion/Siaya councillors/the local community! In the incident you are refering to, I suspect you are being unnecessarily alarmist! There may have been a violent misunderstanding, but I doubt that the area councillor would be so dim witted as to organise a murder gang against the American and still have the chutzpah to be part of the same gang! Councillor Otieno Oriaro is a lot more intelligent than that! Or are you into some cheap politics here?! Which part of Alego-Usonga do you come from?! And was this “murder” raid during the day or night?! Finally, you are without a sense of proportion and even logic; in fact you are tactlessly trying to play to the gallery! Why, tell me, would you want to involve some FBI and the diaspora?! Last time I checked, Kenya had her own sleuths and the diaspora was not part of Alego-Usonga!
Nyamodi Ochieng-Nyamogo-
From: ndebele okoth
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2011 07:33:17 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Should FBI investigate the diaspora on the attempt to kill an America investor in Siaya-County?
http://blog.jaluo.com/?p=22889
Kenya: Dominion Farms YALA SCHEME
from ndedavit06@ . . .
Dear all,
There has been an attempt on the life of the CEO of Dominion farms Mr Calvin Burgess and both the US Government and the Embassy have taken a very strong view on the matter. Infact the embassy dispatched its representative down to the lake region for fact finding immediately.
[ . . . ]
It’s amazing how thick an African can be.
An African person has been forced by poverty to become an ‘economic refugee’ in the US and still the same economic refugee has the guts to keep attacking an American who has invested for economic development in the very same poverty stricken land that this economic refugee is from.
I agree with the claim that an African is a ‘Cursed person’.
Every attempt made by well meaning foreigners to lift an African out of poverty is thwarted by the same dummy African. It’s not uncommon seeing stupid African running around like marauding animals fighting personnel sent to survey the site of a planned project. They would rather be left herding two goats all day than embrace something new for the betterment of their future.
An African person is very cheap. They are easily bought by some local pseudo-intellectuals who are pursuing their own selfish dead-end agenda to frustrate any development project with the stupid claims that the locals were given raw deal by the project ‘owner’.
I am a Kenyan but I have no more mercy or patience for this kind of stupidity among our own people.
Anybody frustrating the work of Dominion Farms need to come out and tell us what the locals were doing with the swamp before Dominion came in – how were the living standards of the locals.
It’s amazing how villagers are satisfied being wife-inheritors – busaa-drinkers – firewood-peelers than embrace new approach to improving their lives.
SHAME.
Just yesterday I bought their 5kg rice at Ukwala and can’t believe the nonsense I read here. We keep being our worst enemies with a mindset and actions that discourage and drive away investments and investors, only hurting us the most.
We fail to appreciate the developments and benefits the firm has ensured in the area in Siaya County when in fact we should be encouraging more of such and even investing in the region ourselves as locals to economically empower our youth and grow the region’s economy in terms of food and job security.
We must separate politics from business and welcome and protect investments if we really are concerned and have a heart for development of Luoland.
Well said Halali
Well stated Halali
The Local Community are stakeholders of any Development taking place in their areas.
From 1974 till I did my O level in Maranda High School my mother and I had shamba one hour’s walk across Abururu and we crossed this area using the late Jaduong Richard Okwar (this is Yimbo side of the swamp).
We never saw this poverty that everyone keeps talking of because this expanse of swamp was being cultivated till we met Alego and Usonga communities, infact there were convoys of maize to Sakwa, Asembo, Usenge from our Yimbo side and I can testify to seeing the first barter trade where people would bring in sugar, salt, clothes, plastic wares, blankets for exchange of maize.
To cross in the boat maize was the currency including a cup of tea at Otieno Obonyo’s “hotel”.
Repeat the above scenario in all areas around the swamp that we are talking about and you will agree with me that it was only the approach which was wrong in not using the available resources to benefit the community as until now only 30% of the land is agriculturally developed.
Our problem is not Dominion as an agricultural developer, our problem is his methods: Dominion can do their rice and the communities can do the maize as before. Why must we produce rice at the expense of maize and our staple food is maize and there is ample land for BOTH? (I wonder when we started rice as a staple food?) – we are saying it differently: Dominion and the community can live side by side because there is enough land for both of us.
The only secret which you would be surprised to know is that Dominion Farms has not prepared even a single acre of land since they came in seven years ago. This scary and shocking revelation is the bone of contention here: THEY ONLY TARGET FARMS THAT ARE READY FOR PLANTING.
They make sure there is a dispute and the locals knowing that they cannot go very far especially when the District Commissioner or the Provincial Commissioner is around with their team the peasants are moved to the next area. This has repeated itself since Dominion took over from the Lake Basin Authority. This time round there was even order from above!
Right now people are working at the swamp both in Alego Yimbo and the cost of labour for preparing an acre is about kshs 30,000 tell me the scenario in 2014 when a tractor will move into these farms to make dykes for rice? I can bet my shirt on that!
They have jembes and pangas preparing much more land than they gave up! They were once lining up for rice and maize at the Dominion gates as was the arrangement!
They now have their maize, bananas, vegetables, fruits!
They are boasting of harvesting more than 100 bags of maize last season!
They saw the tractors get into their shambas and run to the High Court with the new constitution in their mind!
The Court Order was served but it was of no use – the Organization did not think much of it!
When the tractors came a second time, the bananas plants, vegetables, fruits, sprouting maize was trampled with a new vengeance.
Surely a new meaning has been given to poverty eradication in Yala Swamp!
We are losing the big picture in counting so much in an organization that can have the energy and might of fighting these peasants over a 30% area as opposed to working on the 70%.
We will give details of why the peasants out of experience can prepare all these acres of land and Dominion Farms cannot, and why we estimate it to cost about ksh 30,000 per acre and why the farmers are thrown out of the farms after t three years including how we respect the value and work Dominion has done on the River Yala towards the Lake, and also that they arrest herders and community herd of cattle and we support them on that! CHECK THIS SPACE!