I would like to take this opportunity to invite Indians living in Kenya and Kisumu in particular to join other progressive forces in Nyanza to share their knowledge with locals on matters relating to investment and development in Kisumu. As you may be aware, many Indians in Kisumu are involved in both small and big businesses thus playing a leading role in the economic activities of Kisumu City. Despite this fact, majority of Indians in Kisumu are into themselves, they are not well integrated into the local society. It is sad to note that, over 100 years have passed since their arrival yet they remain a very closed society, only associating with high flying government officials i.e senior police officers, senior revenue officers, power wheeler dealers etc. Given their manipulative and deceptive nature, the Indians have perfected their game and are in class ahead of their own when it comes to dubious contracts involving public funds. Endowed with placid outward, you can only guess why every Abonyo smiles sarcastically when an opportunity to see a government official comes by.
The lack of social interaction amongst Indians with the locals in Kisumu must now be addressed by the two Members of parliliament, Mr. John Olago and his Kisumu East counterpart- Mr. Shabir Ahmed. For the Luo people to achieve full independence and ownership of their natural resources, something must be done. Asians attitude amongst the local people must be urgently addressed for both Kisumu Asians and the Locals.
The trend of living in separate zones, separate clubs and sending their children to separate schools belongs to the colonial days and not now. The Asians also have exclusive clubs where locals are not allowed to be members. The Asian Indians don’t intermarry yet their men with extra ordinaire sexual appetite can easily buy local girls and women. Some even use this as requirement before employing a local women. On the contrary, Indian women are not allowed to practice their fundamental basic human right, the right to choose who to associate with. Furthermore, Indian parents do not want their children to interact socially with those of other races because of the Hindu belief in keeping to one’s caste. My Indian brothers and Sisters, you have been in Kenya for over 100 years but still can not trust the local population…. Is this really progressive and does it make sense???? You don’t value the locals yet they are the source of your wealth.
This is a big problem that must be thoroughly addressed by means of constructive dialogue. We live in a modern age therefore don’t need to resort to crude means to engage you with the locals. Integration is a keyword everywhere i.e. in USA, UK, Canada, EU Countries, Australia, India, Saudi Arabia etc. In these countries, you have to speak the local language and learn the local culture in order to be relevant. Once you have opted to study, work, or do business in a foreign land, you have to respect your hosts and learn a few tricks in order to be relevant. In Kisumu, Indians do away with all these and still can manage to go on with their business due to inefficient governance system of corruption and under the board arrangement that has made us poor to this moment. People are tired, enough is enough, integrate or pack up and go to India. If the Kisumu mayor doesnt want to empower his own people, I doubt the reason why he said yes to the nomination in the first place.
The Kisumu Indians can decide for themselves the best road to take. They can do it voluntarily now before integration clock tickles far-flung.
William ODuor
________________________________
True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.
– – –
Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2008 13:14:39 +0000 (GMT)
From: “William ODuor.”
Subject: Time to say NO to Kisumu Asians
ODuor,
Why do you want to socialize with Indians? Have you tried to socialize with them and you were turned away? I do not think that the people of Kisumu has a burning desire to marry Indian women or go to their clubs to listen to their music or churches to listen to their prayers. Why did you pick only the Indians? How about the Luhyas and Kisii’s in Kisumu? Indians are business people and they go anywehere in the world to do business. It is difficult to do business in Kenya without being corrupt or corrupted so this is not an invetion of the Indians. There are Luos, though fewer than the Indians, who have the kind of money the Indians have and they are doing business in Kisumu. Indians just happened to have more money than the Luos and there are not enough Luos with money in Kisumu to fill the gap the Indian businesses fill. There are Luos with money but they are not doing business in Kenya. A good topic for you would have been to encourage Luos with money to come and do business in Kisumu and evetually they will replace the Indians through fair business competition.
Your point that intergration is the key word everywhere renders your entire arguement baseless because people do not intergrate everywhere. Only poor people intergrate because they have no choice of where they live or do business. Rich people can chose where they live and they tend to cluster on the basis of culture, tribe, religion and anything else that they share in common. Indians practise their cultures where they are and this is what bring them together more than anything else. Luos have abandon many of their cultures and gthat why it is easy for a muhindi to socialize with Luo women than a Luo to socialize with a muhindi woman. This is not restricted to Kisumu but is true anywhere in the world Indians live. In the US that you mention, once an Indian buys a house in one neighbourhood several others will follow and before you know it the entire neighbourhood is Indian. In Edison NJ Indians took over one shopping area and when you go throught the town, you would think you were in Bombay, oops Mumbai. In one school in a NJ town there were so many Patels in one grade that they could not divide classes alphabetically in fear of having all Patels in one class. In the not far future all gas stations and convenients stores in US will be owned and operated by Indians. There is a William Smith in the US who feel the same as you, William ODuor in Kisumu but the only option the two of you have is to provide the services that the Indians provide so that there will be nothing for them to take over. You just can’t become Idi Amin Dada and ask them to pack and go.
ODuor, what needs to be done in Kisumu is to build a strong economic base. Instead of spending too much energy on Indians spend that energy persuading Luos with money to come and build Kisumu.
Nyanja