The Luo community has stood up tall in producing some of the
finest brains that have positively contributed in building the economy of our
great nation Kenya since independence.
However ascending to the highest office
in the land (Presidency) remains elusive even as the country approaches the
next general election that has been termed a one bullet affair for the
community.
The community has been perceived to be bright and passionate
in their dealings, a bit proud or should i call it bravado, these characteristics
have worked for or against them in some instances and many a times they are seen by
other communities as arrogant and inconsiderate in how they handle issues of
great concern.
As a member of this community, I am proud beyond measurable
levels to have been born among these great intellectuals, but I am a worried
young father when I look at the future of our kids and the kind of leadership
we would what them to be under.
There is one fact we cannot continue hiding from, being out
of government, -save for a few pockets of individuals who have been in and out-
has immensely affected us in terms of growth in all aspects and it could be the
reason why the entire luo nation is DEPRESSED.
Despite presenting ourselves as strong individuals we have virtually lost everything since independence. When the country was on the verge of
independence, Jomo Kenyatta was still in detention and the Britons were ready
to hand over power to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga who declined that nothing could happen in the absence of Jomo ,thus he pressed on to fight for his release.
When that finally happened and Kenyatta became the first
President of the Republic of Kenya after serving shortly as Prime Minister, he
rewarded Jaramogi with the position of Vice Presidency for his loyalty.
Their marriage did not last long as Jaramogi was fired in
1966 after disagreeing with Kenyatta’s style of administration which he said
was non inclusive and marred with skewed appointments, thus he formed his
clarion statement of ‘Not yet Uhuru’
As a community, that was the beginning of our struggles and we haven’t recovered from it, and those considered to be friendly to Kenyatta’s
administration like Tom Mboya were retained in government where they fully took
advantage of their government links and airlifted several young bright luo
students to the US for further studies; that included Barrack Obama senior.
Tom Mboya, who was then considered to be the torch bearer of
the community, was assassinated in day broad light outside a chemist along Moi
Avenue in the country’s capital city, where he had stopped by to pick some drugs.
The incident sparked off spontaneous riots with luos feeling that they were
being unfairly targeted.
The woes of the Odingas and the community at large further
deepened after Kenyatta government impounded and towed Lolwe buses belonging to
Jaramogi that were later auctioned at 400 shillings each.
With the exit of Jaramogi from the scene came in Raila Amolo
Odinga whose poor leadership style and his inability to take in advice has
further cost us and even depressed us more. Raila has lost once and rigged
twice but whether rigged or lost fairly he hasn’t been able to capture the
presidency.
He easily gave in to ‘A nusu mkate’ government even after it
was clear that he beat his closest challenger Mwai Kibaki in the elections. The fruits of a
coalition government though are visible save for a few complains here and there over
appointments, thus I can confidently say that being out of government is not
something we can take pride of.
Since the lessons learnt in 2007 general election it is evident
that elections are not won at the ballot and pity those who said we were
headed for victory on the ICC argument that Kenyans could not vote in suspects
of international crimes.
Raila Amolo Odinga must now learn from his past mistakes if he still hope to occupy the house on the hill in the near future, he must delegate duties to
professionals, stop putting much of his trust in institutions like the IEBC or the Courts, shade off spent forces (Unworthy friends) and listen to advise.
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Asante sana, this is lovely.