ABAGUSII TO VOTE VISIONERY LEADERS TO PARLIAMENT

In this electioneering year, the Abagusii people need to consider electing to Parliament vibrant and visionary leaders whose focus is to raise our people from apathy & rekindle their hopes. Our people need leaders with the ability to work on formulas that will bring about common sense solutions to the stringent problems that bedevil the Abagusii community. As we look forward to the campaigns in the general elections, I urge all voters to focus on leaders whose ideas, message, policies & issues are in tandem with the drawbacks that face the people on the grassroots like inaccessible roads, falling education standards, poverty, lack of electricity & underpayment to tea farmers by the Kenya Tea Development Authority. It can be observed that the genesis o the social, political and economic underdevelopment that prevails in Gusiiland is as a result of old school leaders with fuddy-duddy political ideologies. These old school politicians coil on money politics, slander, big-man mentality, propaganda, fight for power & clannism.They are allergic to the truth, issues, ideas, diversity, inclusion, debate & dissent. I want to remind our people that when politicians decides to pour money in order to win votes in an election, there is something they want to conceal; some truths they don't want to ventilate to the people and this deceptive & political corruption is what our people should be prepared to liquidate as we vote in the coming December. Why should we re-elect an MP whose capacity to advocate for the people in Parliament are lacklustre? I have the audacity to believe that the government in power is not able to know the problems facing constituents unless an MP can address the same in Parliament. That is why I can conclude that the challenges facing our people in Gusiiland are not because of the government but due to the inefficiency of our elected leaders. Their dormancy should be the beginning to the end of their political careers as they should be voted out in December this year. Unlike a trade unionist whose role is to represent workers, an MP should advocate & fight for all - the farmers, workers, scholars, business people, the sick, orphans, widows & widowers & the poor. Fighting for service delivery to the constituents should be the pivot through which an MP’s span in Parliament should evolve on. On infrastructure, its perturbing that the Kilgoris-Kisii road which traverses five constituencies beginning from honourables Nyachae’s Nyaribari Chache, Magara’s South Mugirango, Manoti’s Bobasi, Onyancha’s Bomachoge & even Konchela’s Kilgoris, is in a pathetic state. Driving through the road is total agony as the road is engulfed with potholes. I wonder what honourable Nyachae whose docket falls on roads thinks about the state of this road linking not only 3 districts but also Nyanza and Rift Valley Provinces. The problems in Gusiiland are quite immense that even the tea sector, the community’s economic backbone has never been given adequate attention by our elected leaders. When farmers from other communities enjoy robust returns for their tea, our farmers are the most underpaid in the entire Country. The list of problems is broad; the dwindling educational standard in Gusiiland which emanates from lack of teaching staff and laxity of our teachers has never been effectively addressed to remedy the situation. As an aspiring candidate for the Bobasi seat in this year's general elections, I challenge the MP for Bobasi honourable Stephen Manoti to say what he is representing in parliament when he cannot move any motion that can spur the lives of our people. It’s shameful to be called honourable for 10 years when you cannot actively participate in parliament to fight for the people who gave you the mandate. In a democracy, the strength of the voters is to decide on who should decide their issues & policies in parliament. That is why, the people of Gusiiland have the mandate to send a credible leaders to Parliament to advocate, speak & address issues that matter to them like: roads, schools, hospitals, electricity & above all, to ensure that people gets a share of the national cake, since it’s our entitlement as citizens of Kenya. Gusiiland politics is littered with disunity, greedy, geocentricism, hate, & clanning. Each constituency operates like a tribal entity. Elected leaders do not speak with one accord to address the problems facing the people. Even the senior politicians who should nurture politics of tolerance, unity and visionary leadership are driven by wrath, arrogance, rancour, political cronyism, and greedy. I challenge honourable Nyachae, the only senior politician from Gusii to tell us what he has done for the community’s social, political and economic development due to his unfettered access to the country’s top leadership besides his party being part of President Kibaki’s government of national unity? Leaders, who act contrary or fails to nurture the covenant they established with the voters after being elected, should be voted out and replaced with men and women with vision and integrity. This is the surest way to teach all elected leaders in Gusiiland and the entire Country a lesson so that they can wake up to effectively represent the people who gave them the mandate to Parliament. Joseph Lister Nyaringo Bobasi, Gucha District