Re: [Jambo] Kenyan Delegation Visit Mr. Calvin Burgess in Oklahoma

Dr. Omburo,

When somebody is given the power to read from a University, it means that the person should be tolerant to opposing views. You are doing a great disservice to Kenya and the Luo community (that you think you are serving) by the kind of contempt you are showing on this issue.

I may not have done anything to the Luo community. What I know is that I have enriched the lives of number of people around me. They include Luos and non-Luos. I am not on a mission to do something for the Luo community so that I can get a medal.

What I will tell you and the other elites who think that by becoming PR officers for Dominion they are serving the Luo community is that your actions are antagonizing your goals. You don't have to go through Dominion to bring development to your backyard. You don't have to do papers for Dominion on what opportunities are there to be exploited. You should exploit these opportunities because your profits will remain at home to create jobs. Dominion will exploit our labour, enjoy tax breaks, create new customers by using eminent domain laws to amass land kicking out the subsistance farmer, etc. The Problems in piny Luo and Kenya can only be solved when locals take the leading role as opposed to letting multi-nationals decide our destiny.

The Diaspora Economical Transformation Committee is walking down the same road as the Kisumu Development Trust, the Luo Thrift & Trading Company and Luo Union EA. All these organizations were marketed to the common Luo in the village as Luo institutions. We now know that the Odingas were the sole beneficiaries.

Many questions remain unanswered over Luo Thrift. Promintent is the issue of 2 farms in Miwani that were acquired by Luo Thrift, then taken over by Jaramogi. To this day the Luo people have not seen a single cent as compansation. The Kisumu Development Trust was yet another body that was used for PR by the Odingas. Hundreds of Kenyans around the globe contributed money through the trust to buy the Molasses Plant. At that time, we were told it was a Luo project. The Odingas pulled the tribal card telling us that the government was oppressing Luos. The elite wrote papers, made presentations, collected funds etc. Our people jumped in, providing political and social power to the Odingas. Today, the plant belongs to the Odingas and Energem Resources.

Dr. Omburo, do you remember the issue of Redicon International? That was the company that the Odingas wanted to manage fishing in Lake Victoria. As we address the issue of Dominion, we must also pull the Redicon bones out of the closet. The Odingas had formed PR teams at the grassroots to market Redicon as a savior of the Luos. These teams did not know that they were touching the heart of the Luo. The Odingas pulled out when the masses cried out.

We should wake up and end this exploitation by one family. The Odingas are opportunists who will auction the Luos with one hand while the other is patting us to sleep. As educated people we should put aside tribal sentiments and hero worship and look at issues critically. If indeed you are for the common man in the Yala area, you will not be acting as PR mouthpiieces for Dominion.

Jackton