By Dickens Wasonga.
The Nyanza provincial commissioner, Mr. Francis Mutie has appealed to the media to assist in rebuilding the badly tattered image of the region, as the government scales up efforts to woe investors into the region.
The pc observed that the region has huge resources which only needed to be fully exploited to empower the local residents to grow economically, and added that “positive publicity would really help to redeem Nyanza’s worn out image”.
The pc asked the media in the area to take a leading role to market the region agressively by highliting the potential the province has in terms of economic growth and help attract investors.
The senior administrator pointed out that alot of development activities was going on in a number of sectors of the economy, but the activities were not getting the focus of the media, like other issues that only potray the province negatively.
“The trend now is where all that we read and watch in the media is only violence related. Other negative happenings need to be discouraged. I am not trying to gag the press, but all I am asking them is to also appreciate the good things that our province has to offer”, said the pc.
Mutie also appealed to the journalists in the area to realise that they were part of the communities within which they work, adding that they needed to practice responsible journalism that promotes development, and discard sensational reporting of issues.
The pc said with the expansion works at the ksh.3b Kisumu international airport is nearing its completion, and through aggresive marketing of the western Kenya tourism circuit, the region will soon be turned into the economic hub of the entire east African region, and alot of ground work must therefore begin ahead of the expected growth.
Nyanza, which has been associated for along time with opposition politics since the times of the late doyen of opposition politics in Kenya, Jaromogi Oginga Odinga, remains one of the regions in the country which are least developed, with poverty reaching worrying levels.
The region has also been associated with high prevalence rates of various diseases, the most talked about one being HIV/AIDS.
Acts of violence have also dominated news from the region in the past, thereby potraying residents of the province as intolerant and arrogant.
These issues have turned away many would be investors from the region, making it lag behind in terms of development, for several years.
Cash crops, such as cotton, sugarcane and even maize were known to do well in the area some years ago. Things have since changed for the worst, but agricultural experts still believe that with a renewed government involvement, and farmers emporwerment, the crops can still offer a solution to the current food insufficiency facing the locals.
ENDS.