Commentary By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City

The sentiments expressed earlier this week by the Central Organization of Trade Unions of Kenya {COTUK} Secretary General Francis Atwoli against the MPs from Western Kenya were not in vain nor destructive, but an awaking calls for our legislators to pull up their sacks and work.

The stinging and scathing criticisms of our MPs accusing them of laxity and complacency when it comes to the question of development were genuine and very constructive. The two regions of former Nyanza and Western Provinces are yawning for development, job creation and poverty eradication efforts,

The COTU[K} chief delivered his hard-hitting criticism of the MPs from Western Kenya last Monday during the National Women’s Committee Leadership Workshop at the Tom Mboya Labor College, Kisumu.

H blamed the MPs from Western Kenya regions for engaging themselves in endless empty political slogans at the expense of development. His views represent the true picture of what is going on the ground. It is also a clear testimony that our legislators are not genuinely serving the interests’ of the electorate, but their own selfish interests which are outside their mandates.

I am in total agreement that our MPs must wake up, initiate the genuine efforts on poverty eradication, building rural economic infrastructure, which have the direct economic bearing, which could be of great beneficial to the electorate instead of useless political gimmicks. The residents of the regions have heard enough these empty political slogans and sycophancy.

Truly to Atwoli sentiments, we have not heard from the Luo-Nyanza region talks about the possibility of reviving the collapsed industries in Kisumu City such as Kicomi [1985] Ltd, Kenya Breweries Plant in Kisumu City, Kibos Industries and many other medium and small scale manufacturing industries. Nearly all closed down ten years ago.

In fact, Kisumu City is the only town in the Republic of Kenya where there is not even one single functioning industry. The closure of the town’s large and medium size industries had spilled out thousands of jobless youths to the town’s streets and has since become life threatening phenomenon.

The Kenya Breweries plant and Kicomi {1985} Limited had a combine labor force of more than 5,000 workers. All these people were sent home permanently on redundancy’ and there is not the lightest hope of their reinstatement in the near future.

Another important facility which closed down about the same time as Kicomi and the Kenya Breweries plants was Miwani Sugar Company, which left and abandoned its workers as destitute in an overgrown and living camps and estates full of venomous snakes and other dangerous varmints. It went under while owing the workers millions of shillings in unpaid wages, and most of them could not move out of the company living camps due to lack of money for bus and Matatus transport fares back to their rural homes.

A series of meetings called by the MPs and leaders in Luo-Nyanza mainly to strategize on these contentious issues have all ended up with deliberations on matters of national politics and next presidential elections, but nothing tangible touching on economic empowerment of the residents of the region.

We have not heard our MPs putting up argument demanding better return for the hard working fishermen in Lake Victoria. And yet the fishing and fish trade in this region has of late become one of the greatest national assets minting billion of shilling in the much required foreign exchange.

Nobody in this region is talking about the revival of cotton one of the most lucrative cash crops with ready market out there. The last time Nyanza produced many bails of cotton made were in the years 1937, 1952 and 1957. The existing AGOA agreement between the giant US and the African nations has availed ready market for cotton, but its production has dwindled to the near extinct point.

Many parts of Luo-Nyanza are endowed with good annual rainfalls and distribution, but due to lack of incentive and encouragement from political leadership the region’s agriculture is being given only lip-service. This confirms that development agenda is not within the vocabularies of Luo MPs.

When the immediate former Rarieda MP Raphael Tuju struggled hard and initiated tangible development efforts in his constituency with far reaching effect on the population, he was simply dismissed by his FELLOW Luo parliamentary colleagues who branded him as someone who is serving the interest of the Mt. Kenya politicians.

The same group have now focused their attention on remarkable achievement of the abreast talking Ndhiwa MP Joshua Orwa Ojode whose sixteen representation in Parliament of an area previously regarded as one of the most backward parliamentary constituencies in Nyanza has turned around the area to be the bastion of massive development and food production.

In every election time, the anti Ojode elements within the ODM caucus have lost no chance of sponsoring candidates to derail his chances of recapturing his Ndhiwa parliamentary seat. But the only mistakes of Ojode’s enemies is always backing the wrong aspirants with no credibility. This has given the hard working MP who is also an Assistant Minister for Internal Security leeway of winning back his seat.

Whenever the opportunity availed itself for possible brain storming on contentious issues such as how to eliminate the abject poverty among the people, the economic empowerment of the residents of the region, the kind of talks that rent the air are quite irrelevant to the need f the population.

As a matter of fact, the residents of the lakeside region now viewed their MPs as serving them as a bunch of agents of poverty and visionless lots.

The ailing sugar industry has hit the Luos the hardest. All the five white sugar manufacturing plants are located within the region, four of them being established in Nyando and Kisumu districts where the indexes on poverty are said to be the highest

We have not hear even one single voice of an MP from this regions articulating and championing for the woes affecting sugar cane farmers in Nyanza.And where the cane famers are wronged and aggrieved due to the deployment by the government of non-performing managers or those involved in massive lootings.

But what we do hear is that some of the very our leaders who suppose to defend the farmers turns against the in support of such inefficient and incompetent managers that the farmers wanted kicked out. The farmers ends up being the losers at the hands of moneyed managers.

Iin most cases such inefficient managers only serves the interest of politicians and MPs who are allegedly shielding them from being fired, It is the politicians who some time acts as the power brokers and godfather of the inefficient managers in the sugar industry especially those serving their selfish interests . We do hear dreadful rumors of some individuals conducting clandestine operations of power brokerage between the inefficient managers and the parent ministry to ensure the retention of unproductive and non-performing managers. And these are some of the reasons the sugar industry has been baptized as the ‘Milking Cow”.

Francis Atwoli as the Secretary of the Union of the Plantation and Agricultural Workers knows better where the problem lies. He has consistently fought hard for the workers welfare and good wages, but at time finding himself being stabbed at the back by the seemingly compromised MPs.

His criticism of the MPs from Western Kenya is not misplaced, but genuinely timed and as such need to be supported by all level mind and sane people with the interest of the public at heart.

Ends

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com