From: otieno sungu

Governance

The Agenda shall be committed to:

The principle of participatory democracy that lays emphasis on the welfare of our people:

The principles of social justice and the equality of opportunities for all Citizens;

The principles of accountability and transparency in order to restore confidence in the institutions of government, discipline and leadership by example as basis for public life and personal integrity as an important moral value in the conduct of public affairs;

Fostering the spirit of oneness among our people by treating all Kenyans and county colleagues fairly and equitably, regardless of their social, political or economic status; and

The preservation of Siaya as a multi-cultural and multi-religious county whilst guaranteeing freedom of religion and good conscience.

ECONOMY

Over the past ten years, the government has pursued an economic program (euphemistically called an Economic Recovery Program, ERP) whose implementation has impoverished and shamelessly exploited the good people of Kenya and Siaya in particular. The ever escalating cost of living has only served to reduce Siaya citizenry into beggars. Indeed the success of an economic programme is judged by the extent to which it reduces poverty and makes the people economically secure as well as the extent to which benefits from economic growth are equitably shared among the teeming masses.

We shall as an Agenda agitate for;

A complete change from this shameful record and pledges to restore our dignity as a sovereign nation and county. We will seek to create in Siaya a just and humane society where each is his brother’s keeper. We aim to shape the county’s history through faith in one another and solidarity with each other. The Agenda will emphasize job creation, poverty eradication, capacity building, rural development, saving and investment. We will encourage innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit and conserve and develop our natural resources.

Free enterprise. It is our conviction that profit must not be regarded as something immoral but as reward for productive activity and for assumption of risk. We accept the centrality of markets, but where necessary we must guide the markets to promote competitive flexibility in our county economy and security and stability in our society.

The realization that in a marginalized county, such as ours, the greater engine for social change and economic progress is the entrepreneurial economy. Hence a need to establish a pragmatic balance between the public and private sectors – not one of rivalry but of complementarity, each supplementing the other in the creation of jobs and incomes. Hence the need to create new economic management structures to ensure closer partnership between the key players – industry, agriculture, trade and commerce and the financial sectors on one hand and the Public sector on the other.

Binding the county government, employers and employees in a negotiated social contract which will balance productivity gains with rewards and incentives in the system. The partners in the contract will operate as a vehicle for regular consultation – not one called into being merely to smother egos. This will ensure improved industrial relations and avoid damaging industrial strife in our county. It will ensure greater participation by the people, more freedom for the private sector and greater respect for pluralism. We believe that a consensual approach is more productive than the exclusion and confrontational approach which has been practiced over the years. South Africa showed the way – an impressive example of reconciliation, consensus building and political inclusion.

Promotion of good county governance, and effective relationship between the people and government and the necessary environment for sustainable economic development. We shall ensure that law and order prevails in the society by curbing the rising crime and making the streets of Siaya safe for our mothers, sisters and children.

Develop a middle class driven by small business owners, professional class with access to credit.

Create easy access to transferable property rights in urban and rural areas.

Protect the weak and poor through initiatives that is designed to integrate them in the economy.

Improve investment in physical and social infrastructure.

GUIDING OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSED WILLIAM ODUOL ECONOMIC PROGRAMME

Provide a conducive environment for job creation for all persons able and willing to work and to reward each of them appropriately;

Reduce the tax burden especially on workers and pensioners, and on the poor; reduce inflation and stabilize the exchange rate.

Empower our women and youth by supporting their entrepreneurial initiatives through a well-structured county policy not tokenism;

Accelerate economic growth and development of Siaya in order to enhance opportunities and raise the standard of living for all people of Siaya.

Take all the appropriate measures to promote industry and agriculture by strengthening and promoting citizen entrepreneurship in order to ensure that Siaya people take hold of their own destiny and that economic growth benefits them.

Ensure access to health care and quality education for all and in particular promote science and technology advancement in the county;

Work to promote home ownership among inhabitants of Siaya as a means to strengthen the family, provide economic security and control street crime and violence as well as encourage personal savings;

Ensure an even balanced development of all the regions within Siaya and turn around hitherto low economic potential areas into middle and high potential economic areas;

Alleviate poverty and ensure a respectable safety net that enhances human dignity for the poor and disadvantaged;

Light the eternal flame of Siaya residents and build a strong sense of patriotism and the capacity to defend and consolidate the independence of their county, the survival of its democratic system of government and generate a sense of participation and ownership in its development, prosperity and progress;

Totally develop the rural areas through the pursuit of an aggressive integrated rural development programme;

Husband and protect the county heritage especially the environment, our land and forests, minerals and timber and all our natural resource endowments including our beautiful water

UNEMPLOYMENT AND JOB CREATION

There is hardly any reliable data source on the unemployment situation in Siaya. What is indisputable is that employment in both formal and informal sector has shrunk, following retrenchments in the public sector. But the clear perception is one of massive unemployment in both the urban and rural areas. This unemployment is heavily concentrated in the age-group 18-35. Graduate unemployment has increased alarmingly whilst the Primary and secondary schools are literally producing “drop-outs”, creating a potentially explosive sub-sector of the society.

THE WAY FORWARD

The cure for unemployment is a rapidly expanding economy and a fluid labour market with opportunities for skill up-grading. Our economic program should be specifically intended to produce such. Apart from job openings which an economy expanding under stabilized conditions will generate in agriculture, industry and in the services sectors, other major programmes for road construction and rehabilitation, for urban renewal, sanitation and environmental protection and reclamation, for low cost housing and rural development will generate jobs to absorb large numbers of the unemployed. This will be coupled with training and retraining incentive packages as well as vocational and technical schooling. Further we will agitate for incentives for self-employment and particularly support the informal sector as well as women and youthful entrepreneurs with financing. We will actively seek out and encourage non-governmental and charitable organizations which have expertise and experience in training, re-training and the fi
nancing of self-employment schemes. This should be hinged on the following measures

Implement special sector programmes embracing industrial, trade and other measures backed by adequate resources. This will include the strengthening of light manufacturing, mining and other vulnerable sectors to include saving and growing jobs in the clothing and textile sector, expanding the food industry and other sectors.

Engage the private financial sector in order to facilitate its transformation and diversification including the development of the co-operative financial institutions as well as ensuring that the sector contributes to investment and developmental priorities of the county.

Develop programmes to promote the important role of jua kali and agriculture in employment, meeting basic needs and community development, and commit to continued transformation of these sectors to achieve county goals.

Tourism and other services will be supported to expand work for our people.

Ensure that the mandates of development finance institutions are clear and truly developmental and that their programmes contribute to decent work outcomes, achievement of county developmental needs and sustainable livelihoods.

Lead a massive public investment programme for growth and employment creation. This will include expanding and improving the rail networks in Yala, public transport, dams, housing construction, information and communications technology and energy generation capacity as well as education and health infrastructure, and in the process create additional decent work opportunities whilst meeting the basic needs of the society.

Create an environment for more labour-intensive production methods, procurement policies that support local jobs and building public-private partnerships.

Vigorously implement broad-based economic empowerment and affirmative action policies as contemplated in the constitution and adjust them to ensure that they benefit more broad sections of our people, especially the workers, youth, women and people with disabilities. Policies will, in addition, actively promote skills development and equity at the workplace.

Launch a much larger county youth service programme and a new county youth development agency, focusing on access to funding and employment creation, which will be linked to skills development opportunities and build decent work opportunities for young people.

Administration of Justice

The Agenda shall:

At all times uphold and defend the Constitution of the Republic of Kenya;

Uphold the principles of separation of powers as enshrined in the Constitution;

Uphold the Independence of the Judiciary;

Ensure the security of lives and property of all citizens living in Siaya.

Food Security

The William Oduol agenda is committed to creating an environment that ensures that there is adequate food available to all, that we grow our own food and protect the poor communities from the rising prices of food and eradicate hunger.

The agenda proposes the following practical steps:

Promote food security as a way to lessen our dependence on food imports.

Introduce a food for all programme to procure and distribute basic foods at affordable prices to poor households and communities. Government will develop an appropriate institutional approach for the implementation of this programme.

Introduce measures to improve the logistics of food distribution such as transportation, warehousing, procurement and outsourcing in order to reduce food prices in the long term. Continued enforcement of stronger competition measures will be used to act against food cartels and collusion, which inflate food prices.

Expand access to food production schemes in rural and semi-urban areas to grow their own food with implements, tractors, fertilizers and pesticides. Other government measures will support existing community schemes, which utilize land for food production in schools, health facilities, churches and urban and traditional authority areas.

CONCLUSION

Our county does need change in the way government relates to our people and in the delivery of services. We are committed to a service delivery culture that will put every elected official and public servant to work for our people, and ensure accountability to our people. We will seek to have our economy managed in a manner that ensures that Siaya continues to grow, that all our people benefit from that growth and that we create decent work for the unemployed, for workers, for young persons, for women and for the rural poor.

We will remain in touch with our people and listen to their needs. We will respect the rule of Law, human rights and we will defend the Constitution and uphold our multi-party democracy.

In Solidarity

Bernard Ochieng Oluma
Siaya Professionals Caucus
Ugunja Sub-County

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Nelson Mandela.

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