Kisumu
  30/07/07
 
LUO LEADERS SPEAK ABOUT THE COMMUNITY UNDER DEVELOPMENT AND MARGINALISATION.

By Leo Odera Omolo

A quick glance at various Luo communities will provide one with a clear picture that associate the community with an incomplete journey to achieving socio – economic development.

The above observation were made at the weekend by Dr. T.D. M. Ayodo a senior lecturer at the Maseno University who doubles as the patron of the Luo Elders Development and Cultural Group (LEDEC) when he delivered a key note address before a group of Luo elders who converged at Kisian in Central Kisumo Location, Kisumu district.

Dr. Ayodo told his audience ‘’when we look around us, we do appreciate the resources nature has endowed us with in the form of fertile and arable land, water resources, good rainfall all the year, the weather, mineral and human resources.

What we need to embark upon is the utilization of these resources to sustain our livelihood. This is the extent to which we could wisely utilize our resources that will eventually determine the quality of our lives and the general level of our development, ‘’ said Dr. Ayodo.

He said modern technology and interaction of people of diversified ethnic and racial backgrounds have tended to erode the values of the modern Luo cultures. The community therefore need to keep live in the present and future generations the norms that have tied the people together and the common ancestry from Sudan, so that in the midst of contemporary upheavals our cultural identity lives on into eternity’’ he added.

The elders who met at Kisian had come from the various sub- clans of the Jo – Kisumo groups such as Karateng’, Korando, Kogony, Kanyawegi, Kanyakwar, Kadongo, Kapuonja, Osiri Masanga and Kanyamedha.

Dr. Ayodo expressed deep concern at the rate of poverty in Luo – land. He said the latest survey indicate that for most parts of Luo – Nyanzaa 70 per cent of the population is living below approximately 50/- a day which is considered by Kenyan standard as being below the poverty line. This mean therefore that most residents of the region find it hard to meet the basic requirements for living including inadequate food, housing for shelter, sanitation and education.

Dr. Ayodo further observed that education performance in Luo – Nyanza has always caused endless concern at the primary and secondary levels, culminating in very few students gaining admission to the Joint Admission Board (J.A.B.) requirement for admission into competitive public University facilities and courses.

This, he said, can be contrasted to what happened in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s when our children and scholars were more competitive at the tertiary level,’’ said Dr. Ayodo.

On fishing on Lake Victoria and on the region’s rivers, which used to be a flourishing with primary and commercial activity, and source of cheap but rich protein, periodically grinds to a halt, as a result of the diminishing fish population. Wherever heavy commercial fishing takes place, the beneficiaries are hardly local residents, but the middlemen and their exporting agents.

Dr. Ayodo decried about the high rate of unemployment in the region. He said industries which used to provide employment opportunities in Luo Nyanza, such as the Kenya Breweries, KICOMI, Kibos industries and even the Kisumu Molasses Plant had to close down as one of the sugar factories (Miwani) while others are limping. These have led to reduced chances of earning incomes for local people.

Wage employment elsewhere has proved even more elusive. In the past three decades, less people from the Nyanza region have procured jobs in leading positions in the public and private sectors. But all these opportunities have diminished.

The Maseno don further observed that infrastructure such as roads have remained poor over the years, limiting access to rural areas. The problem experienced by the deteriorated railways services has also affected the region’s economic activities and so has the steamer transport system on Lake Victoria.

Dr. Ayodo said Luos were in the forefront in the struggle for Kenya’s independence and the composition of the post independence cabinet in the early 1960 reflected that contribution. But thereafter came the great purge in the middle of the 1960s and the community appeared to have undergone persistent marginalization, which puts it at a disadvantage in sharing the national cake.

The meeting was convened by the two permanent elders from Jo- Kisumo sub – clan Mzee John Ouko Reru and Mzee Raphael Ondu Agai a former Deputy Manager of Kisumu. It also attracted a number of intellectuals and LEDEC member from other locations all over the province.

Also in attendance was the LEDEC national chairman Mzee Walter Kitoto Adell, who also doubles as the Chairman of Riwruok Jokano Manyien (RIDOKAM), who said that for most part of Nyanza, agriculture forms the backbone of the community’s backbone of subsistence and source of income.

But agricultural productivity has progressively declined over the recent past, with most of the staple food traditional crops like maize, beans, vegetable, root crops, millet, horticultural produce not sustaining the increased population.

An even worse problem, Mzee Adell said, is being experienced with the region’s favourite cash crops such as sugarcane, cotton. The growing of cotton has virtually disappeared while the sugar industry has also been experiencing a series of problems, which have adversely discouraged farmers from actively producing the cotton crop. Even rice growing along the Nyando river has virtually stopped and coffee has also lost the attraction it had in the 1950, with most crops having been uprooted.

Ends.
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com