A NEW PARLIAMENTARY ASPIRANT FOR KONOIN HAS EMERGED WITH A VISION TO TURN THE AREA TO A BASTION OF DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES.

By Kipsiele Arap Sugurut
 
Nicholas Cheruiyot Rotich aged 42 a former senior manager with NBK is among more than a dozen of aspirants vying for Konoin Parliamentary seat in Bureti district.
 
Born at Cheban’ga Location in the family of a well-known educationist surveyor and a politician Mzee Richard ‘’Makerere’’ Arap Koech, Rotich bring into Konoin politics the talent and art of younger generations armed with University degrees,and political dynamism that has been missing in Konoin for many years.
 
He obtained B.com and MBA at Poona University, India. He joined the NBK in 1989 and he served in various capacities both at the HQ, Kisumu and Busia.His entry into Konoin  race has shaken the area like a thunderbolt.
 
He decried the declining standard of education in Konoin, which he blames on the laxity of previous political leadership. This could as well be attributed to political mediocrity that has been the case in the past.
 
There is alarming increase of unemployment among the youths, which may ultimately increase insecurity in the area. It is a burning issue which must be addressed with utmost urgency.
 
Konoin is grappling with poor economical infrastructure such as roads network which is hampering the reliable transportation of green tea leaves from the farms to the processing factories, especially during the rainy season. Other facilities required are electricity supplies and communications.
 
The decline in education standards, he said could be attributed to lack of educational gear such as libraries properly, built and maintained tuition blocks.
 
He attributed this pathetic state of poor education standards to unfair allocation of funds meant for the improvement of schools and poor disbursement of school bursary funds.
 
Other development challenges include of low access farmers’ to extension services, poor access to affordable credit facilities to the farmers and businessmen.
 
There is also the problem of inaccessibility to basic health care, lack of clean water for health, deforestation and insecurity. Rotich is seeking the ODM nomination .He is one of the party’s torchbearer in Kipsigis region.
 
Farmers in Konoin, particularly the small and large-scale tea farmers are facing a lot of hardship due to poor payment system for their crops. The prices of the commodity, especially the raw green tea leaves have remained stagnant for along time despite of high costs of labour and other inputs.
 
There is increasing labour abuse within the multinational tea companies operating in Bureti district. The workers are poorly treated. In some cases if a worker misses to report to work at his station of work, such person is summarily sacked from his job. This is unfair because the workers cannot be dismissed at random. They too, are human beings and might have some good reason of missing to go to work on a particular date at a particular time of the month.
 
These malpractices are against the labour convention. And in the case of the tea workers, the union is weak and ineffective. He urged the union people to pull up their socks and serve the workers adequately. The workers must have very effective representatives at every table of 11 negotiations
 
The union, he said have allowed the introduction of tea plucking machine into the estates thereby rendering the manual tea pickers redundant. In order to sustain the jobs, the multinational tea compound must get rid of those machines.immediately.’
 
Tea workers are highly demotivated by poor wages. They are highly exploited despite of their commendable services. “Justice must be done to cater for these workers.” He said
 
The company management should consider the possibility of introducing bonus payment system to the workers so as to make their work look incentive. The kind of bonus, Mr. Rotich was talking about is smoothing to be paid either quarterly per six months or yearly as a reward to the worker for a job well done. Improvement of housing facilities for the workers is also necessary.
 
Mr. Rotich assured the electorates that when elected to Parliament he will spear head the fair and just disbursement of CDF money. He will ensure that the money is channeled to be targeted projects, adhere to proper accounting standard, public’s information and reporting.
 
He has produced a booklet on his vision explaining all the plans he envisaged for the area in future. Mr.Rotich is facing the incumbent MP Sammy Koech a former MP Raphael Kitur ,one time an Assistant Minister Joshua Terer,a senior manager with James Finlays Tea Company,Andrew Langat and six others.
 
Ends.