PRESIDENT OBAMA’S ONE YEAR IN OFFICE CELEBRATIONS AT HIS ANCESTRAL RURAL HOME IN ALEGO KOGELO APPEAR TO BE HEADING FOR A FLOP DUE TO FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS.
Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Nyang’oma Kogelo.
The much highlighted one week festivities planned for Nyang’oma village in Alego Kogelo in Siaya appear to have attracted less enthusiastic crowd than it was last year. The celebrations end today, but so far, none of the expected dignitaries has turned up to grace the occasion.
It’s organizers have been forced to cut down some of the events, as well as the duration, which were originally slated to take one week, but have now been reduced to only four days.
The organizers, however, are still optimistic that the US Ambassador to Kenya, Mr. Michael Rennerberger, who was expected to attend, will still grace the event with his presence. Another important guest who was expected to attend is the Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, who is currently on an overseas tour, putting his possible attendance in doubt.
The organizers of the event, led by Alego Kogelo civic leader, Councilor Okeyo Omedo, who is also the chairman of the celebrations steering committee, revealed that his committee was facing financial constraints, and this is what has forced them to cut down the duration from one week to four days.
He disclosed that the committee had forwarded its request for funding to the Ministry of National Heritage, with a budget of Kshs one million, but only received Kshs 50,000 which is inadequate. Moreover, the corporations that they had requested to chip in something have yet to respond.
The event, which is meant to celebrate the US President Barrack Obama’s inauguration in Washington D.C as the first black President of the most powerful nation on earth, kicked off this with several teams of tribal dancers, musical bands, football teams arriving from various locations, within the locality.
Most of the events are being held at the Senator Barrack Obama Kogelo Primary School, which is less than a kilometer from the Obama’ ancestral home, and also few meters from Nyang’oma market.
Those already arrived and converged at the venue, are members of Jo-Kogelo sub-clans, who traveled back to their ancestral home from many other Luo locations as far away as Rongo, Nyatike, Tanzania, Kano plains, Asembo, Ndhiwa, Kasipul-Kabondo, Karachuoyo, Asembo, Kisumo and other places. The majority of this sub-clan members are living in Southern Nyanza.
Since President Obama’s ascension to the presidency of the United States of America, this particular community, which is scattered in many places, has been elevated and placed in the highest esteem by their fellow Luos.
The Jo-Kogelo sub-clan, though scattered in many places inside Luo-Nyanza, have produced two MPs in Parliament. The incumbent MP for Kisumu Town West, Hon John Olago Aluoch, is a descendant of the Kogelo sub-clan, and so is the former Bondo MP, John Ougo Ochieng’, the man who is in record and credited for having vacated his Bondo parliamentary seat in favor of the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga in the early 1980s. Hon Ougo Ochieng’ hails from Asembo Kabondo, a sub-clan whose members are also the descendant of the larger Jo-Kogelo.
There is also a big concentration of this particular community in East Sakwa Location, Awendo-Division in Rongo district, in Southern Nyanza. Others are also to be found in Central Kadem in Nyatike district as well as in parts of Kodera in West Kasipul, Karachuonyo. Members of the Kanyakwar sub-clan, which has a big concentration in East Kisumo Location, in the outskirt of Kisumu City are also inter-related to the Kogelo Groups. This is the sub-clan of the present Kisumu Town West MP, Hon John Olago Aluoch.
Other members of this now important sub-clan are living in the North Mara region of Tanzania
Ends
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