Elders from Nyanza region have laid down a case for the creation of Suba County in submissions to the National Dialogue Committee at the Boma of Kenya.
The Suba Council of Elders, in their presentation, pleaded with the committee to “remedy the previous wrongs” committed against the Suba people.
They asked the committee to recommend Parliament establish an independent commission to review the boundaries of Homa Bay County for the purposes of creating Suba county.
Philip Owino, a member of the Suba Council of Elders, said the quest for Suba county is for equity for the wider Nyanza region.
He said Nyanza has been discriminated against by previous regimes in the distribution of administrative units, constituencies and now counties.
“Nyanza region has deliberately been denied its fair share of these governance units,” Owino stated.
Joab Obora, also a member of the council, noted that Suba county was among the original 74 counties proposed by the Committee of Experts that drafted the 2010 Constitution.
“The proposed Suba county met all the objects and principles of devolution set out under Article 174 and 175 of the Constitution respectively, key amongst them being recognition of ethnic diversity, self-governance of communities and protection and promotion of minorities and the marginalised,” Obora said.
He added that the county also has the ability to access reliable sources of revenue.
Obora further stated that Suba county complied with requirements regarding the historical and cultural ties of the people, unique geographical features, a national game park, a mountainous mainland and isolated islands.
Suba District was created in 1996 and was existing as an administrative unit of the national government.
“The decision to declare districts gazetted by 1992 as new counties was not scientific but an act of fiat. Some districts were declared counties even though they were not gazetted by 1992 thereby creating unequal treatment by excluding Suba County,” Silvery Ochola, a member of the Suba Council of Elders said.
He stated that several counties that were included in the list of 47 districts share similar characteristics with Suba County making its exclusion an act of gross discrimination and enhanced marginalisation.
The Suba (Abasuba) people of Kenya largely inhabit the South West Islands of Lake Victoria and the surrounding shoreline areas of the opposite mainland, all within the territory of Kenya.
Islands dominant with Suba population are Mgangano, Rusinga, Takawiri, Remba, Kiwa, and Migingo.
On the mainland opposite islands, the Suba occupy Gwassi, Kaksingiri, Gembe and Lambwe areas of Suba South and Suba North constituencies.
A large population of Suba people have also settled in Nyatike, Rongo, Uriri, Suna East, Suna West and Awendo constituencies of Migori County.
The Suba people have strong intercultural affinity with the Luo and Luhya communities but they have nonetheless maintained a distinct cultural and linguistic identity.
UNESCO has listed the Suba language as endangered.
