In Summary
In my home village, there is a place
called Bariguti. It is at the top of Manga ridge. From this vantage
point one can see the sparkling lights of Kisumu at night. It is here
where the colonial District Commissioner, Northcourt used to spend his
time at night watching the glow of Port Florence (Kisumu) and often said
“Very Good” which the Kisii people corrupted and named the place
Bariguti. The scintillating beauty of Kisumu was unimaginable in Kisii
which did not have electricity then.
Northcourt
was later on killed by Otenyo (considered one of the Kisii heroes) in
the struggle for internal self-rule but the Gusii people continued their
pilgrimage to Bariguti as a source of inspiration. For the Kisii
people, it is here where the sun set and as such there were many stories
of this mysterious place. There was a myth that one never fights a Luo
in the morning because they will be stronger before they get weaker as
the sun moves towards their land. This has been the truism about the
Luo to date in Kisii.
Transport
businesses in the entire Kisii land was dominated by Kisumu
businessmen. There were buses christened Lolwe, Tom Mboya and Nyanam.
Siaya District which in our view was part of Kisumu, topped in both
Kenya Primary Examination (KPE) and the East African Certificate
Examinations (EACE). We attributed much of Siaya’s success to fish and
indeed when we sat for KPE, we ate fish the night before.
My
first visit to Kisumu was full of drama when my cousin who made clothes
(direct translation) at Kicomi offered to take me there. We walked a
distance of five kilometers to take a bus to Kisii town. It had rained
heavily that night and road maintenance staff blocked the road for
several hours to allow the road to dry up and avoid accidents. People
patiently waited and everybody respected the law. When we started
moving, in my view the trees were moving in a reverse order. It was my
first ride in a vehicle. We took Lolwe from Kisii to Kisumu arriving
late in the afternoon.
Kisumu
Municipality was clean. There were no street vendors like you see
today. There were no idlers and indeed if you did not have anything to
do in the city, the police arrested you under the vagrancy law (IPPG
removed the law from the statute). One of the most captivating episodes
for me is when I saw the Police move around on horsebacks. This was
the following morning after we had arrived. The shinning morning sun
made the light bay and liver chestnut horses glitter.
I
savoured the beauty and gracefulness of the horses. So when I returned
to Kisii, I jumped on a small bull hoping to have a ride similar to the
one I saw in Kisumu. Big mistake. The bull was in shock and as I held
on to its ears, it jumped like it was in a rodeo. I had no option but
to hold on tight. It ran through a thicket that disrupted its view
forcing it to momentarily try to find its balance. I jumped out but not
without injuries. I leant a lesson.
It
was therefore a great honour and privilege for me when Governor Jack
Ranguma invited me last week to meet with him and other governors from
the lake basin to share views on what needs to be done to improve the
region’s economic fortunes. For a start, the formation of a regional
economic block is a positive move. Kisumu and its environs lays below
the Nandi Hills and Kisii Highlands and is endowed with rich water
resources. It can be the California of Kenya.
The
California Aqueduct is a system of canals, tunnels, and pipelines that
conveys water collected from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and valleys of
Northern and Central California to Southern California. The water is
used to irrigate millions of hectares ensuring food security for
Americans. Imagine then what we can do with Ahero rice fields and even
more land for other crops. Kiarie who with Sammy Onyango and Rosemary
Okello were part of the team, tells me that it is possible to take this
water to Mau Summit and be able to irrigate millions of acres and make
our country food secure.
With water
there is fish and indeed we have the Victoria Tilapia that is as unique
as the Scandinavian Salmon. Whilst Salmon is available in virtually all
important hotels globally, tilapia is absent even within our borders.
We have not developed the supply chain. We need to develop a fish
infrastructure, cold rooms, auction markets that will remove the risks
from the poor fishermen. According to David Ndii, a two billion shilling
financial stimulus into the fishing industry has injected more than 60
billion shilling contribution into GDP. It has not only created wealth,
but also created a significant number of jobs.
We
need to finance at least five PhDs at Maseno University to develop a
fish value chain that will exploit the natural resources in Lake
Victoria. The waters of Victoria can be a great source of tourism with
water sports and sport fishing. These activities will give rise to
other industries like the production of fish hooks, repair of jet skis
and ship building. The opportunities are many.
Water
is the great resource of the lake region. We should never talk of
resource curse in water, for 80 percent of infant mortality happens
around the lake region and virtually all of the deaths are from water
borne diseases. If we eliminated infant mortality here, Kenya’s Human
Development Index will jump up by 20 to 30 percent. Like mighty
warrior Luanda Magere of Sidho clan in Kano we must fight poverty,
disease and ignorance.
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