Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

Kisumu CITY, which in the year 1969 set the political history by voting in the first woman who was popularly elected MP, is set to repeat the same history by voting a woman to Parliament under the new constitutional dispensation.

In 1965 the lake side town picked Mrs Grace Aketch Onyango as the first woman Mayor in Kenya. The City repeated the same achievement by voting overwhelmingly in favor of Mrs Grace Aketch Onyango as the first woman MP in the 1969 general election on a KANU ticket. Mrs Onyango thereafter represented Kisumu for the next 22 years.

From the face of things Mrs Rosa Buyu, a Nairobi-based business woman who has a family root in Bondo like the previous MP Grace Onyango, is set to become the next MP for Kisumu Town West under the newly realigned parliamentary constituency which was curved out of the Kisumu Toiwn West, now Kisumu Central.

The incumbent MP is John Olago Aluoch, a prominent Kisumu lawyer. In 2007 Mrs Buyu is believed to have beaten Olago Aluoch hands down during the ODM nomination, but her she was robbed of election victory through rigging by some ODM operatives who wanted to sideline her because of her family relations with the Prime Minister Raila Odinga. However, Odinga remained non-committed and neutral through out the hotly contest ODM election battle between Buyu and Aluoch.

Rosa Buyu is the daughter of Kisumu business magnate the late Mzee Parick Onyango Ochang, the former proprietor of the Nyataya Bus Company. Her father for many years was the confidant of the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.

The new regional Kisumu west constituency now comprises exclusively rural locations which were previously included in the Kisumu Rural constituency and part of Kisumu town and its environs like Nyahera, Ojola, Chula-Yimbo and Karateng’ and Kiboswa.

The majority of the residents of these rural Locations are the indigenous people jo-Kisumo.Although Mrs Buyu has a family root in Bondo, she is married to a Mr Randiak of Kadawa Kisumo near Holo market. Her mother in-law Mrs Dorothy Randiek is the former trusted sister of the late Roberet John Ouko, the slain former Kenya’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and international Cooperation who died in February 1990.

The residents of these rural locations are the indigenous jo-Kisumu, while the outgoing MP Olago Aluoch is a member of the Jo-Kanyakwar an immigrant clan whose roots could be traced in Alego Siaya.

An eloquent speaker in both English and Dho-Luo vernacular, Mrs Buyu is a graduate of Nairobi University is so popular with rural folks and women as well as youth. She is a resourceful and generous lady who is reported to have been assisting many families in distress and need of school fees and other problems.

The beautiful Rosa Buy is a wit and unbeatable in a political platform. She has displayed her ability to mobilize the crowds during her recent appearances in a number of funeral homes within the Jo-Kisumo sub-clans.

Olago Aluoch, however, is credited for having been the most effective defender of Raila Odinga both inside and outside parliament, but he should have been advised to defend his own parliamentary seat in Kisumu Central, an area comprising mainly residents of the peri-urban areas of \nalenda,|Pand-pieri, kibuye, Obunga, Kondele and the Central Business district [CBD} instead of going for the Kisumu West seat.

Olago Aluoch tenure is shrouded with multiple accusation of poor disbursement of CDF and other government revolving money, the worse being the school bursary fund, where mothers of the poor students seeking bursary for their children have allegedly being asked for sexual favors before their children could be issued with the bursary fund, money which is always ranges between 3,000 and 4,000 not exceeding Kshs 5,000 , Whereas in the neighboring Kisumu Town East constituency the incumbent MP Shakeel Ahmed Shabir is credited for being so generous in giving out busary money for the needy students ranging from Kshs 10,000 and above.

Olago Aluoch is facing other allegations of having sidelined the indignant Jo-Kisumo people and having engaged outsiders to man the CDF and constituency offices, most of the managers are people from Siaya, South Nyanza, Migori and Rachuonyo with none from among the jo-Kisumu.

These outsiders are being accused of having vandalized the revolving funds and converted the money for personal use in total disregards to the plight of the electorate.

These are some of the major issues which are likely to dominate the campaign in Kisumu Town West. Mrs Buyu is said to have used her own resources helping the students from poor families. She is also unlike Olago Aluoch is accessible both in Kisumu and in Nairobi.

Ends