Wrrites Leo Odera Omola

A TOP Kenya scholar has appealed to those who are fortunate enough within the society to help the down trodden members of the society to educate their children so that they too could come up.

Prof Douglus Odhiambo said those who are serving in senior positions within the public service and in the private sector should also help the poor families by not only helping them to educate their children, but also by offering them employment in the government and in the private sector.

Prof Odhiambo was speaking during prayer function to mark his younger brother Abner Ochieng’Okaka 80th birthday. The party, which was attended by many people, was held at their Mariwa home in Sakwa South Location, Awendo district within Migori County.

Ochieng’, a retired former civil servant, had served as the Provincial Co-Operative Development Officer in both Nyanza and Western provinces before retiring into sugar cane and mixed farming.

Prof Odhiambo called on the youths to redouble their efforts in farming as the sure way of increasing income generating activities and expediting the development of the region. He also advised the youths to lead a discipline life so that they can live longer.

He warned the youth in Luo-Nyanza to stop the bad culture of looking for free things and handouts and instead to go back to the land and be productive as this as the only sure way of realizing much faster development in the region.

Abner Ochieng’Okaka said Migori County is a region which is blessed with arable and fertile land as well as god annual rainfall therefore there was the need for the people to work hard in farming. Kenya, he said, is an agriculture economy and it is up to the people to make good use of the fertile land they have also to ensure food security.

The major asset of the region is its fertile land, and if properly exploited by way of planting cash crops such as sugar cane, maize, coffee, tea, vegetable, the locals would be able to mint cash money.

Speaker after speaker at the party heaped a lot of praise on Abner Ochieng’Okaka for having initiated various socio-economic projects in the area while serving in the government. They gave as examples the ultra modern dormitory at St. Albert Ulanda Girls High School, Mariwa Dispensary and Mariwa Co-Operative House among many projects he had initiated.

Speaking at the same function, the chairman of the retiree William Ayieko Nyakachunga urged the younger generation to emulate Mzee Abner Ochieng who had sacrifice a lot for the local community.

Nyakachunga appealed to the current leaders to set good examples of exemplary service to the nation

Both Ochieng and his wife Mama Getrude Ochieng’ were primary school teachers before the latter joined the government as a co-operative development officer in the early 1960s and rose through the ladder to become the Provincial Co-Operative development Officer in both Nyanza and Western Provinces.

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