- Lake Victoria South Water Works Development Agency chair Odoyo Owidi said the Luo community in Mombasa has for a long time been used as ladders for other people to rise to prominence while they wallow in poverty thereafter.
- He said the time has come for the community to join UDA in their numbers saying the party cares more about the people are the grassroots than ODM, where most members of the Luo community are.
Image: BRIAN OTIENO
Members of the Luo community in Mombasa have been getting a raw deal politically because they tend to vote along party lines instead of individual development record of candidates, a leader from the community has said.
Lake Victoria South Water Works Development Agency chair Odoyo Owidi said the Luo community in Mombasa has for a long time been used as ladders for other people to rise to prominence while they wallow in poverty thereafter.
“The last time I was in Mombasa, I discovered the Luo in Mombasa is a lonely lot without leadership,” he said during a meeting with members of the community at Mbaraki in Mombasa on Sunday evening.
He said the time has come for the community to join UDA in their numbers saying the party cares more about the people are the grassroots than ODM, where most members of the Luo community are.
He said UDA is led by a development-conscious leader who has a heart for the people at the bottom of the pyramid.
Owidi, who is also the chief whip of the Council of Chairpersons of Parastatals, said President Ruto is the first president to set foot in Mfangano Island in Homa Bay and has delivered most of the promises he made to the people of the Luo land.
Instead of appreciating the good deeds, Owidi said, the Luo are always shown who their enemy is, which coincidentally always happens that it is the president of the day.
“When people are shown their enemy, they forget about other things and start seeing the enemy in everything,” he noted.
“Once upon a time it was (Jomo) Kenyatta, then the next enemy was (Daniel arap) Moi, then the next enemy was (Mwai) Kibaki, next was Uhuru then now it is Ruto. Soon it will be somebody else. We must get out of this nonsense,” Owidi said.
He said Ruto promised a fish processing plant and fingerlings factory in Kano and he has already laid a foundation, construction is currently ongoing.
In Mfangano, he promised a ring road and its construction is underway.
The Sindo-Magunga road, which Ruto promised, is under construction currently.
“And of course, there is no president who can do everything in one year when he has four more years to go,” Owidi said.
He defended the Kenya Kwanza government over the hard economic times saying every Kenyan is feeling it, even Ruto himself, but assured that things will get better soon.
“We are in this quagmire because of the former presidency. A presidency that largely went to bed with the opposition, so nobody told them that things were going wrong,” he said.
In Mombasa, he noted, politicians are used to using the Luo numbers to gain votes and then abandon the lot after they get elected into office.
“Sifu Raila, Kanyaga Jaluo (Praise Raila, Step on the Luo). That is the slogan that has been used. It is painful,” Owidi said.
As of the 2022 general elections, the Luo voters in Mombasa were at least 150,000.
Owidi, however, said despite the large number, members of the community rarely get seats commensurate with their numbers.
“Because over the years, they believed they should be electing parties, which have devised a method in which no Luo gets nominated to run on the ticket of the party,” Owidi said.
He noted that in Lamu, the Kikuyu community has used their numbers to get elective seats, including MPs, Deputy Governor, and MCAs.
He said the Luo in Mombasa must demand representation and be part of the leadership in the county.
Owidi said the community can easily win two MP seats and 10 MCA seats in Mombasa if they speak in one strong voice.
On the national scene, he said, ODM collects hundreds of millions from the Political Parties Fund due to the votes the Luo community members give the party with no tangible thing to show for it.
He said the around Sh500 million ODM collected from the Political Parties Fund should be accounted for.
“These people are suffering without representation, leadership, guidance and development. The first political party should be themselves,” Owidi said.
His sentiments were echoed by Luo Professionals chairman Pius Okecth, who said the community has been used for far too long and the time has come for them to benefit from their numbers.
He said the Luo are one of the most impoverished communities in Mombasa, with their members ready to walk from Bangladesh to Tononoka for an ODM political rally and back, but with their children sleeping hungry at home.
“We must change,” he said.
Former Nyali MP aspirant Gordon Omondi said the community must first unite and speak with one strong voice for them to achieve any goal that they set as a community.
“I have always been swayed by a sobre leader. When I see a sober leader, I will follow that leader no matter where they are from,” he said, noting that political parties do not faze him.