RESIDENTS OF MARIWA MARKET PLEADSM WITHPOWER COMPANY TO RESTORE ELECTRICITY SUPPO IN ORDER TO REDUCE CRIMES’

By Leo Odera Omolo

Residents of Mariwa Market and its environs in South Sakwa Location, Rongo district are up in arms in protest against the Kenya Power and Lighting Company for failing to restore their power supplies.

The supplies went off a couple of weeks ago when the nearby transformer was either burnt by thunderbolt and became mechanically defective, plunging the Market and the surrounding institutions into total darkness.

Nearby homes, primary and secondary schools and the Mariwa Health Centre were all affected. The power shortage has also interfered with the night studies in the nearby primary and secondary schools. This is an area which is prone to serious crimes such as cattle rustling , burglaries and frequent shop breaking.

A retired senior civil servant Mr. Abner Ochieng’ said a report was immediately made to the nearby KPLC offices both at Kisii and Kisumu requesting for a team of technician to visit the area and repaired the crippled transformer, but so far nothing has been done.

The KPLC has yet to respond to the residents pleas for nearly a month ..
Mariwa and the surrounding villages are prone to crimes. A night hardly passed without criminal elements attacking homes, or breaking into shops. The area is also close to Rong-Transmara borders, which is prone to cattle rustling. If the Power Company cannot repair the crippled transformer or replace it with a new one, the farmers in the area stands to lose their herds of cattle.

Farmers in this region have in the recent moved into keeping high milk yielding graded cows, which are very expensive. But in the absence of lights in their homestead, their animals could be stolen and lost in the hands of cattle rustlers from both the Maasai and Kuria communities..

He area is the home to a large number of wealthy sugar cane farmers whose ultra and palatial homes could easily attract night attack by hard-core criminals. if the darkness p state continue to persist

MZee Ochieng is the retired former Provincial Co-Operative Officer in Western and Nyanza Province, and the younger brother of the academic luminary Pro. Douglas Odhiambo, the former Vice Chancellor of Moi University, Eldoret

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Date: Tue, 26 May 2009 08:18:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: Leo Odera Omolo
Subject: MARIWA RESIDENTS CRIES FAUL FOR LACK OF POWER SUPPLIES