Reports Leo Odera Omolo
The electorates in Homa-Bay County have been urged to cast their votes widely during the impending general election so as to ensure that only focused leaders who will work hard to eradicate the abject poverty among the population in the region will win office.
One of the leading contenders for the position of the County Senate representative Hilary Ochieng’ Alila while speaking at a fund drive in aid of Oyugis Central SDA Church in Rachuonyo South district within the Homa-Bay County, he decried the highest poverty index in the region.
Alila strongly refuted the rumor making the round that he had withdrawn from the Senate race. He said he had travelled outside the country for an important business mission, and ha since returned and has effectively resumed his campaign I earnest.
Alila donate Kshs 40,000, while another aspirant or the Homa-Bay County governor gave Kshs 35,000, the area MP Joseph Oyugi Maguwanga sent Kshs 10,000, a retire Kenya Army Captain John Omolo gave Kshs 50,000 while the retired former Country Representative of Marrie Stoppie Clinics Cyprian Otieno Awiti who is also vying for the governor position and who was the Chief guest sent Kshs 20,000, Tom Sipul of the KWS gave Kshs 20,000.with a message of apology.
The contest for the Senate seat for Homa-Bay County is pitting Alila against the Immigration and Registration of Persons Minister Otieno Kajwng’ and the former Kasipul-Kabondo MP William Oloo Otula.
Addressing the function Alila urged the residents of Kasipul-Kabondo and all those Luos whose rural homes are located I areas neighboring other communities like the Abagusii, Kalenjins, Maasais, Nandis, Luhyias and Kuria to cultivate the true spirit of friendship and peaceful co-existence.
He said by doing so they {Luos} could successfully persuade and convince their neighbors to join he ODM in heir thousands and vote for the party leader Raila Odinga to realize his presidential ambition in 2012. ”Every one single vote is so important for “Agwambo” to capture the presidency, so please do sell the party wherever you go and even when you me t your women folk at market places.
He said Raila Odinga is committed reformist whose presidency could turn the country around and make Kenya happy place to live and work in. He has a clear vision for development, while his opponents are thriving on politics of malice and opportunism.
The electorate should read carefully the various conflicting and confusing statements and public utterances by Raila’s opponents in the presidential race most of it based on malice and political damaguegry. This is a clear testimony that none of them has any development agenda in mind apart from bashing the Prime Minister in every chance that comes their way.
The wise Kenyan people have already been in a position to verified the utterances of some of the presidential hopeful and have concluded that those who have ganged up in the amorphous so-called G7 alliance are not worthy their salt. It is good the Prime Minister has kept his coolness and only making statements which are worthy a man of statesmanship of his caliber, and status
“This is a sign of political maturity and good leadership. And we must all in the ODM as the only mass political movement with the support of all Kenya across the ethnicity an tribal boundaries.”Said Alila.
On Sunday Alila was among the guests during the ordination of Bishop Moses Odhiambo Abiga at Ufira Miracle Gospel Church at Kamasengre in Rusinga West Location, Mbita district within Homa-Bay County.
The ordination ceremony was conducted by Bishop Paul Wandera from Uganda who is the had o this Church in East Africa. Also in attendance was former Mbita MP George Osingo Migure, he Deputy Chairman of the Luo Council of Elder Ex-Senior Chief Omolo Anditi and the chairman of the Suba Council of Elders Mzee Apllo Okeyo Omuga.
Alila assured his supporters that he is very much in the race for the Homa-Bay Coty and also that he would be contesting one of the senior most branch election of the ODM in Homa-Bay County when the election is called.;
Ends
AN OPEN LETTER TO GOV. AWITI
1st of January, 2014.
To
Governor Awiti,
Homa-Bay County, Homa-Bay,
Kenya.
Dear Sir,
Happy New Year, my able governor. I hope this find you well!
I am happy about the intentions of your government to invite investors. Investment is one of those things that can help a society achieve its objective of enduring progress for its people. However, every strategy towards attracting investment must be encouraged amidst very serious counsel. This is my contribution in that accord this year, 2014.
Firstly, governance, like everything else in nature tends to graduate into chaos rather than order. All the best plans, it is over and over again falsely assumed, would ensue through some linear pathway all the way to the nirvana of development. No. It is scientifically proven that development does not take place through a linear pathway. Development only takes place because governance has taken to appropriate complex adaptive systems. Actually the bane of communism was its insistence on the false path of linearity. Karl Max and his ilk idealistically assumed that one day all men and women will ascend to an intellectual paradise, so much so all men and women would all be able to identify what is good for the society for what it is, and then pursue it with uniform determination. Today we have leant to call such thinking “utopia”. The Chinese had to really change their governance philosophy to start on the gush towards its journey of a thousand miles…! Crafting complex adaptive systems requires perpetual investment in great knowledge, great management, great politics, great morality, great friendships and great intentions: It requires perpetual monitoring of the same: It required perpetual evaluation of the same: It requires perpetual change and change management: All that can be summed up as “impact playing leadership”. You started on that note. Can you continue on the same note…”Impact playing leadership”?
Secondly, everything good must also develop negative effects. You build a nice house at the expense of a serene green. You till land, develop settlements, mine…..at the expense of the natural ecological balance. You create wealth at the expense of impoverishing others. No wonder our new constitutional dispensation places emphasis on participatory governance so that everyone has a legitimate expectation in government agenda, be they in terms of programs, plans, policies and projects. Kindly, involve people so that every prospect of development outcome, good or bad, is envisaged from a point of common understanding.
Thirdly, foreign investment without corresponding local march up leads to slavery of the locals rather than progress. This is for obvious reasons. Everyone invests so that they can make profits. In business strategy they call it the “bottom-line”. They will play to political and ethical galleries. They will unleash their corporate communications or public relations whitewash. They will donate to charity. Anything. As long as the “bottom-line” remains dominant. This means that even as your government know-tow with foreign investment you must also encourage local investment. This can be harnessed through utilizing local savings from cooperative societies, welfare groups, pension schemes, individual efforts, diaspora capital (both real term and socio-cultural capital)… These you ought to give prominence more than the foreign investment facet. This is for the simple reason that any local investment has roots and direct impact on local livelihood without much ado! Then strategic impact assessments, encompassing a conflagration of health impact assessment, social-economic impact assessments, environmental assessments, sustainability matrix evaluation, inter alia are must prerequisites. For example, I found the “Agri-city” proposal a misnomer. Preposterous. The model was a picture of ugly concrete jungle replacing the existing serene environments. It did not answer why the already established concrete jungles cannot be transformed into better organized concrete jungles. Secondly, how is the agricultural city to effect life change for the people? Why can’t we develop the existing Homabay, Rangwe, Sondo Magunga, Nyandiwa, Kendu-Bay, Mbita, Rodi, Oyugis, Mirogi, Ndhiwa…. into whatever city we have in mind with every investor allocated lands and incentives as long as there is proven strategy of balancing benefits to the people with investor benefits. All these clearly from a participatory prospect. Why can’t we zone various sections of the county, tapping from their relative advanatages? So that the Ruma, Mbita-Sindo Gwassi Complex can be promoted as a tourism complex. So that the entire lake zone, from Karachuonyo to Mikuyu in Gwasi, to the Lake Victoria Islands would be promoted as Lake fishing zones. So that the Oyugis, Rodi, Nthiwa, North Gwasi complex can be promoted as agricultural zones. The flat areas of Kochia with its suitability for irrigation would join this. So that Homa-Bay-Rodi complex can be developed as a major urban settlement also housing university-industrial complexes, administration, ICT hub, among others.
Fourthly, for every endeavor by government to conjure up communitarian good, there is a corresponding move to convert them into selfish individual benefits. Individual benefit is really the end of every governmental endeavor. However, selfish individual benefit is really a creation of an inequality paradigm where public goods are hijacked by a minority, leaving the public destitute. Men and women are inherently selfish. Whenever they see anything that belongs to the public, they conspire to make it their own, through outright unmitigated free enterprise, theft, connivance, tyranny of numbers among other phony devices. This is what breeds corruption. This is what breeds nepotism. This is what breeds ineptitude. All these, combined with the above discussed factors contribute to underdevelopment.
My prayer for you is that you intentionally preside over a government that strives to be on the side of communitarian good as a shield against these vices.
Thank You and God bless you and your government.
Kiboyye Okoth-Yogo,
Lak Nyiero Republic, Gwassi-Suba.