BY DANNISH ODONGO
As a young boy growing up in the plains of Kano, I would hear words from people around me of a tribe that was known as the Agikuyu. Some of these words were stereotypically negative and were subtly meant to warn me against ‘them’. During school holidays, I would come to Nairobi to visit my dad who lived in a two roomed house in Dandora, near Korogocho slums.
I developed friendships with other young boys whose names were Mlinya, Ndichu, Kamau, and Gichuru among others. We would play football together and ‘drive’ old cars near Nairobi River. We would share bicycles and play cards together. We would go for ‘dufa mpararo’ and watch cartoons on the black and white Great Wall TV in Gichuru’s home whose mum was particularly kind to us all. My holidays were filled with fun; so much fun until I never wanted to go back to the flood plains of Kano to continue with school. I wanted to be with my friends, who came from every part of the country. We all loved one another and everyone was the same in our eyes.
Fast forward to 2002, during the Rainbow Coalition’s campaign when the defacto leader of the Luo community declared ‘Kibaki tosha’. In my curious mind, I asked around why as a community were going to support a ‘Kikuyu’ yet the narratives I had heard about them were not particularly impressive. I don’t want to explain the answer that I was given but it’s going to form the foundation of this article.
A common lie has been peddled in Luo Nyanza for so long that it has now been accepted as the truth. This lie that every problem that afflicts the community stems from the Agikuyu. Oginga Odinga stepped down for Kenyatta as the founding president and then he was shortchanged. We signed an MOU in 2002 and they shortchanged us. In 2007, they stole “our elections” therefore “we” never made it to State House. In March 2013, they drove the last nail into the coffin of our hopes and decided to bury “our” State House ambitions by stealing an election yet again.
While some of the above issues are historical facts, it is unacceptable for an entire community to hold itself ransom through blame game politics year in year out. When one of their own looses, a theory must be concocted to justify why he lost thereby pitting a community against another. Elections cannot be stolen from you in every election year and if that happens, then you deserve it because you allow it to happen. I believe that the perennial complaining after each election loss is a well calculated political move to hoodwink the masses and cover up the lack of a winning strategy.
But more catastrophic is the belief in some quarters that the problems that Luos face today will one day miraculously vanish when one of us manages to ascend to the House on the Hill. Let me break this news to my people. As a community, politics will not solve our problems especially if the politics being practiced is backward, blame game driven and ethnically sustained. Kikuyu’s owe us nothing. They don’t hold the key to our destiny or our success. The oxygen we breath is not supplied by pipes from Central Kenya. Our destiny is in our own hands. If we continue in this perennial blame game, we will soon blame them for trivial maters as bedroom woes, lack of children in marriage, stolen goats, when cows eat soap, when we cant dig latrines among others. Here is what plagues us and hinders us as a people from realizing the incredible potential that lies latent within us:
My people, like John Maxwell says, everything rises and falls on leadership. A car is only as good as the engine that drives it. Without a proper engine, we cannot go anywhere. We must urgently shun politics that are based on grudges and ego massaging. Dynasties cannot bring the much needed change because they are sustained by status quo. We must begin to think of progressive leaders who will hold our hands and lead us as we cross the murky waters of our troubled past. The time to hand over the baton to a new generation of ‘Joshuas’ should begin now. Leaders who are holding onto the past must be shown the door.
I want to urge every young and old, male and female, from Luo Nyanza to take up their weapons (i.e. voters’ cards) and rise up in the next elections by defying the norm and voting in leaders who can guide our community to prosperity, Whether they are independent candidates or candidates from ‘rival parties’. We have stayed in the wilderness for way too long. We have lost far too many people along this journey as we wander in the vast desert of hopelessness. Our fathers and mothers deserve to see the birth of a new Nyanza that is flowing with milk and honey. We cannot carelessly dance with the hopes of our people at the altar of personal ambitions. We must urgently seek to restore the stripped dignity of our people so that one day, they can afford a decent life which is a God given human right. This is not a war targeting individuals, though we might have dynasties as casualties, it should be declared as a jihad against visionless leadership that is filled with rhetoric. Like the proverbial phoenix, our people must rise up from the ashes of servitude and abject poverty to a glorious land of abundance and freedom.
I expect every leader in Luo Nyanza from MCAs to governors to declare a total war on this menace. According to Kenya open data, the top 3 leading counties (Homabay, Siaya and Kisumu, 25.7%, 23.7% and 19.3% respectively) with the highest HIV prevalence in Kenya are found in Nyanza. That is not a laughing matter. We must not take a casual approach to this deadly dragon that is spewing fire in homes across the region. The sight of graves of those who have died of HIV and AIDS should be a stark reminder of how we have suffered at the hands of this disease.
Instead of spending our energies blaming other communities about our internal woes, let us spend that energy in educating the masses about safe sex practices and the effects of wife inheritance. Let us press for the abolition of the old school cultural practices that feed this dragon. Our leaders should not rest until this demon is eliminated from our land.
Though we have made tremendous progress, all leaders from the four counties that are in Nyanza must work together with the national government to deal a blow to HIV AIDS. We have lost enough people. Brilliant brains have been swallowed by the ground. Pain, destruction, hopelessness and abandoned grave filled homes have been the common narrative around this place. From the shores of lake Victoria in South Nyanza to the plains of Kano and the red soil of Siaya kababa, let ululations of joy arise as our people emerge victoriously from the ashes of doom to glorious days of hope.
If there is a region in Kenya that lies bustling with unmatched potential, that undoubtedly must be Nyanza. Vast, fertile, fallow land, the biggest tropical lake in the world (which is also the second largest fresh water lake in the world), brilliant minds, a politically active populace, some of the largest irrigation schemes in the country, good weather and stable neighbors to trade with are just a few of the resources at the disposal of Luo Nyanza. Why then has the region lagged behind despite these critical advantages?
The people of Luo Nyanza must rise up to till their portions of land. Let men and women who are stuck in Nairobi send money back home and invest in different industries that can take our people to the next level. Let our county and constituency leaders give out subsidized fertilizers and irrigation pumps to our people who live near the lake. Let our people engage more in economic activities and wait for a political season to politic.
We must urgently sell Nyanza as a viable investment location. We must attract investors and provide security for their investments. Idle young men and women who are quick to burn down property and loot at slight provocation must be dealt with thoroughly. That is the only way our region will move forward. The world is becoming a global village, woe unto us if we hold on to outdated and retrogressive mentalities. Nyanza’s destiny is in the hands of its own people.
Atonga mayot ema iyombo godo koth