Dear LUOS….JODALAWA…
We need to understand how government undertakes development so that you can place the work of our “experts” in their fair, proper contexts.
Luos joined government when two budgets had been read.
The FY 2022/23 budget was read in June 2022, just two months to the general election. It was a budget disrupted by the election, which necessitated a supplimentary budget soon after the polls.
When this supplimentary budget was developed, Luos were in the streets still fighting to open the servers. Development of the Luo commonwealth was not our focus.
There was neither lobbying by our leaders nor any interest in pursuing development for our region other than what was constitutionally availed. The extra-lobbying was done largely by PS Omolo and CS Owalo, who were then the only top Luos in the regime.
The FY 2023/24 was read also at a time Luos were still on the streets with sufurias, fighting over cost of living and demanding a ‘committee’ to be formed to still resolve the lingering 2022 electoral issues. NADCO would be formed around this time.
The FY 2024/25 budget led to the Gen Z protests but even before then, Luos had opposed it beginning January of 2024; using such things as cost of living and high taxation. The Gen Zs hijacked a war that had been brewed by ODM/Azimio for much of the first half of the year 2024.
The ODM Party joined government substantively in the second half of the year 2024, which is why Treasury CS John Mbadi has only read ONE BUDGET.
Yet, despite this late entry, Luos are now being told that all their development needs since independence can fit in one budget, whose implementation has been mirred in chaos, attempts at tax evasion and deliberate sabotage of the national economy.
Luos are being told that all their dilapidated roads, piers and ports; their many years in darkness owing to snail-pace rural and peri-urban electrification; their struggling commercial agriculture in sugarcane and rice, their non-existent markets; their youth unemployment including absorbtion in mass govt employing entities like teaching and security sectors; that somehow all these things can be achieved in under ONE FINANCIAL YEAR, and that failure to achieve them is a failure of their two CSs in cabinet and one PS at Interior.
We are being made to believe that for our region, the only people who should serve us are these three people; and they should do so NOW.
Our people, please, development is not a sprint. It is a marathon. Uhuru spent 10 years in power yet left MauMau roads at 12% done. He spent 10 years in power and left SGR in a bush in Naivasha, not in a station in Kisumu or Malaba. He could not even finish the ship he was building in Kisumu, whoch was completed under Ruto.
When President Ruto toured Luo Nyanza and put several roads on the national roads roll; that was the beginning of a process that will take decades to achieve. We are lucky that Ruto is running the government with some urgency, that’s why his pledges take only months to commence on the ground. To ensure these projects are completed we must stay in line.
If we listen to too much silliness both from within ourselves and from outsiders, we end up not taking seriously the fact that the Luo must stay INSIDE government.
They tell you there’s nothing to celebrate in Mbadi and Wandayi being in government yet they spend everyday in hotels, conferences, seminars and workshops plotting how to return to government and REMOVE them.
It will take more than 30 years of consistently staying INSIDE government — and while inside, staying LOYAL to the President in power— whoever he/she will be — for the Luo to catch up. Anyisou pile ni WAN CHIEN.
We have only been in government for a few months and suddenly the propaganda directed at us is that the govt is USELESS and we should be the ones to EXIT it so that we await Ruth Odinga’s make-belief presidency.
No, I keep telling you that the Luo came in last and the Luo will leave when everybody else has left.
It means we will be the last community to exit.
We have the reasons to stay longer in government, for at least the next 30 financial years.
Before the government of Kenya builds a DUAL CARRIAGE from Kisumu to Ahero; the Luo Community should stay in government.
Before our rice mills and sugar mills are fully back to profitability; and our farmers can educate their children through the proceeds coming from their farms, the Luo should stay in government.
Before RIAT is fully upgraded to a Public University and students enrollment hit 20,000 students, the Luo should stay in government.
Before Jaramogi Oginga Odinga is properly upgraded and funded to match Moi Teaching, KNH and KUTRH, the Luo should stay in government.
Before the SGR reaches Kisumu, and exits to Malaba, the Luo should stay put in government.
Before the Gor Mahia Ring road is completed and the commissioned; and all those roads elsewhere in Homa Bay, Migori, Kisumu and Siaya recently placed on the national roads roll done, the Luo should stay in government.
Before the Lake Victoria Ferry being constructed in Kisumu is launched to the lake, and the piers in Kisumu, Lwanda Kotieno, Asembo Bay, Kendu Bay, Homa Bay, Mbita, Sori Bay and Muhuru Bay all up and serving as bustling trading ports; the Luo should stay in government.
Before the government brings a navy base in Lake Victoria, to augment the Coast Gaurd and send a clear message to that Old Man in Uganda, and his mad son; the Luo must stay in government.
Before the infrastructure in Luo Nyanza schools, many already national academic giants, match their peers elsewhere in the Republic; the Luo must stay in government.
And, lastly, before we defeat, decisively; that ancient enemy of our people, tribalism and resource theft; a war already being relentlessly waged, the Luo must stay in this government, and help form the next, and the next, until 2055.
We have 30 years to stay LOYAL in government. Thirty years from 2025. Anybody attempting to pull the Luo out will not succeed. Sirkal wabiro wuokie, to mana chooooo higa alofo ariyo gi PIER ABICH, gabich.
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