Repots Arrum-Tidi Ogonglo in Kisumu City.
The contest for the lucrative position of Kisumu County governor has taken a new and most interesting political dimension which is likely to see the inter-clan political rivalry.
Already one of the clans, the Jo-Kano has produced five aspirants for the contest of the same position, something which is likely to raise high political temperature in the region.
Kisumu County comprises of four major Luo sub-clans of Jo-Kano, Jo-Nyakach, Jo-Kisumu and Jo-Seme.
The Jo-Kano group is arguably the largest and dominant sub-clan which is well spread into three administrative districts of Nyando, Muhoroni and Kisumu East.
The Jo-Kano group are currently represented in the tenth parliament by Fred Outa {Nyando} and Prof.Patrick Ayiecho Olueny {Muhoroni}, but due to disunity and inter-sub-clans rivalries the jo-Kano community surrendered another possible additional seat, when the Kisumu East parliamentary seat was easily grabbed from them by Shakil Ahmed Shabbir a Muslim Indian who is a Kisumu City dweller who won the election on an ODM ticket in purely Luo rural constituency in the 2007 general elections to the surprise and chagrins of many people.
The contest has now been complicated with the new entry into the ace by the Deputy Clerk to the National assembly Owino Omolo.
Omolo who is commonly known to his peers as the P.C is originally from Agoro in Nyakach and his parents had settled in the north East Kano around Awasi town. His father the late Tom Omolo was a retired ship captain who served with the defunct East African Railways and harbors.
Omolo is also the brother to the prominent news radio and television news caster Elizabeth Omolo and also the brother to the former Kenya Times investigative reporter Onyango Omolo {Troon} and an uncle to another Television personality Luis Otieno.
Omolo launched his candidature an impromptu Kisumu Airport news conference last Saturday and disclosed that he would resign his parliament job on September 3rd, 2012 to carry out with his campaign for the governorship on an ODM ticket. His influence and political clout could not immediately be assessed.
Other aspirants from the same Kisumu County governor position included the former op accountant with the Kenya Revenue Authority [KRA} Jack Ranguma who hails from Kano Kobura in the Jo-Kano clan
A Nairobi based lawyer-cum-business woman Atieno Otieno who s also eyeing the governor position hails from the Jo-Kano clan.
A senior lecturer at an American University in the US Dr. Barack Abonyo is also a member of the Jo-Kano clan and so is a Kisumu based medic Dr. Makobewa, who is an executive with a Kisumu based NGO known as OGRA FOUNDATION with heavy financial backing from the UK has also declared his interest in the Kisumu County governor position.
Dr Makobewa is also running a chain of medium sizes modern hotels in Kisumu city when making the announcement a couple of weeks ago disclosed that his candidature had already been endorsed by the clan elders from his Kano clan to contest the seat.
Another aspirant fro the same Jo-Kano clan who is also contesting the same seat I the youthful issuance executive based in Nairobi and London UK Simon Ogendo who hails from Kano-Kolwa near Nyamasaria suburb of Kisumu City. He is the son of the former Kisumu Mayor the late Coun Ogendo Von Ponge.
The five aspirants who hails from the Jo-Kano clan will battle it out with, the long time and most successful Kisumu Town Clerk Ojwang’ k’ombudo from Nyakach. He is the former one time two time mp for Nyakach and had served as the Minister for Regional Development in the last KANU regime of the Retired President Daniel Arap Moi.
Kombudo is a man of means and already tested administrative skills. He is currently an entrepreneur running chain of guest houses and hotels in Kisumu City as well as having invested heavily in real estate business, He is also a prominent farmer in the Nyanza sugar belt where he had several large and small scale sugar cane farms spreading from Kibos, Miwani and Muhoroni areas.
Another key man in the race for the Kisumu County governor is he top manager with the Mumias Sugar Company Peter Hongo who hails from the Jo-Kisumu clan. He is credited for having been at the helm of the successful marketing of sugar produced by the largest sugar processing mill in this country {Mumias Sugar Company}for many year.
Hongo has all the quality that is take t be a good governor of an economically powerful County like Kisumu.Hongo is standing in the race alone from the vote-rich Jo-Kisumo clan is a resident of Kogony near Kisumu Airport, and he is also banking on the support of Kisumu City dwellers and cosmopolitan voters most of them workers and businessmen from the outlaying districts of Southern Nyanza, Kisii,Luhyias, Somalis ad Indians and their workers as ell s the Swahilis residents of Kisumu city.
If the clans arithmetic could work well, Hongo and Kombudo could be the two men to watch.
Also in the ace is Raila Odinga sister Ruth Adhiambo Odinga who is the managing director of the family business flagship the Spectre International which is owning and managing the multi-million shillings Kisumu Molasses plant, located at Otonglo Market in the six kilometer in the outskirt of Kisumu City.
The employment a the plant is controversial with allegation of nepotism at glare Nearly 90 per cent of the workers at the plant are people who are related to the Odinga family in one way or the other or politically connected to the family. There are close to 130 workers at the alcohol producing plant, but non of the indigenous people hose land were take and converted into the Kisumu Molasses pant is employed there even as casuals and laborers, something which Ms Ruth Odinga will have to explain satisfactorily to the voters if at all she is serious in her candidature.
Ruth Odinga is considered as a greenhorn in Kisumu politics. Pundits are quick in dismissing her as a big joke. She hails from Sakwa Bondo and is said only to be banking on her family big name to win this coveted position.
Ms Odinga candidature is also causing jittery in some quarters where it is being claimed that the Odingas wants to grab each an every available elective position inside Luo-Nyanza
The dwindling sugar production is the main stay of the Kisumu County economy. There are four major sugar processing mills in the region, namely Chemelil Sugar Company, Muhoroni Sugar Company, Mwiani Sugar Mills and Kibos Sugar and allied Industries at Kibos.
He region business opportunities were recently boosted by the opening of the new Kisumu Airpor, which can now take on bi passenger planes and aircraft ferrying fresh fruits to overseas destinations making the lakeside city a the major gate away to the East Africa region with daily flights connections to other cities in the region like Mwnza,Kampala, Addis Ababa, Dar Es Salaam, Kigali, Bujumbura and juba.
Kisumu is sitting right on the middle of o the Northern Corridor road networking linking it to the landlocked African countries like Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo, Tanzania, Zambia, South Sudan and Ethiopia of Mombasa and the capital Nairobi
The local farmer like the business community could benefit a great deal by intensifying their fruits and fresh vegetable farming in the region which could be ferried by air to European destinations by the increase number of daily flights. Also sand to mint money are the processors of fish fillets from the highly prized Nile perch which are said to be very popular in oversea markets and in the Middle East, US and Japan. These and the likely to be improved earning from tourism are some of the biggest challenges facing the residents of the region to redouble their efforts in farming and fishing activities.
Other big challenges which the new County government will, have to grapples with daunting task of the resuscitating of all the stalled projects which include the manufacturing industries both small and of large scale. Kisumu City has none at the moment.
All the major industries went burst decades ago and coed down spilling hundreds f thousands of workers into the streets as jobless people. They included the multi-million shillings Kenya Breweries plant, which has since been turned into a milk depot by Brookelin Dairies, Kisumu Cotton Mills wit all its spinning and yarning machineries worth billions of shilling laying idle inside now semi dilapidated building
It is for these reasons why the County governance would require upright individuals to the governorship position, Senate and Country wards representatives. It would need the men and women of sound and good education unlike the previous Councils which were filled by party youths, power brokers and semi-illiterate ODM political operatives.
Ends