Madaraka Day 2021 was marked with a historic difference for the Lake Basin. It was, in many ways, like no other since internal political independence in 1963.
The Covid-19 pandemic robbed the occasion of its festive sheen, but life continues in the face of the virulent virus. Kisumu's often volatile Kondele and Nyalenda crowds followed the proceedings from their houses.
They didn't want to make the occasion a super-spreader of the nimble virus. The demand for social distancing, and mask mandates, however, didn't rob the moment of its development and reconciliatory motif.
President Uhuru Kenyatta took a conciliatory message to Kisumu: "My brother (Right Hon Raila Odinga) and I are focused on leaving a legacy where young people have steady jobs, and are able to access basic needs and become a country where all citizens are proud to be Kenyans."
Forget politics and panic around the 2022 General Election. Development, the ignored side of the handshake, may work, through some of the commissioned or launched projects.
Nakuru-Kisumu meter gauge railway, Kisumu Inland Container Depot –Kibos, and the launch of the Kisumu-Butere rail line can change the fortunes of western Kenya.
The Sh25 billion proposed Koru-Soin Dam could tame the perennially wild River Nyando. It offers irrigation opportunities, while increasing access to water. The construction of Special Economic Zone at Miwani is a job creator.
The launch of refurbished Kisumu port and MV Uhuru, alongside a new ship; the revival of feeder ports at Asembo Bay, Kendu Bay, Homa Bay and Sio Port will bolster the blue economy.
The Sh2.2 billion Siaya-Bondo Water and Sanitation project, and the Sh3 billion Isebania-Ikerege-Kehancha-Ntimaru-Gwitembe-Ang’ata-Lolgorian Road, and injection of Sh350 million in South Nyanza Sugar Company are opportunities for economic turnaround.
The event came with renewed hope of One Kenya One Nation, thanks to the scions of founding fathers Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.
Old Jomo's scion, as the symbol of national unity, has the responsibility to set Kenya on a new trajectory.
There is a history to this: 52 years ago, this 58th Madaraka Day, Kisumu suffered presidential wrath. Kisumu was a marked city: profiled as violent — an incitable citadel of opposition politics, even when riots were orchestrated to rationalize the stigma.
Founding President Jomo Kenyatta and the first Vice-President Oginga Odinga clashed in Kisumu during the official commissioning of the former Soviet Union-funded facility, then referred to as Russia Hospital.
The ruckus followed the assassination of Tom Mboya on July 5, 1969. It was a time of tense relationship between Jomo's Kanu, whose symbol was Jogoo, and Odinga's Kenya People's Union, whose symbol was Dume. The shout of 'Dume' within the earshot of Old Jomo activated his phobia for opposition.
The clash between Jogoo and Dume led to the marginalisation of the community during the final decade of the Jomo presidency. Old Jomo did not return to Kisumu during the decade before he died in 1978.
The infectious Executive rage of 1969 saw the Lakeshore community hover around the fringes of national development for many of the 'Uhuru' years. If the other side of the Uhuru -Raila handshake is to be understood for its unitary intention, then this should be it.
It should be an opportunity for a new beginning, not only for the lakeside, but for Kenya.
President Kenyatta and former PM Raila affirm national unity as the motif of their amity. The two politicians, with massive support across the country, want a new beginning for Kenya.
The onus is on President Kenyatta to do right by Kenya, on the sunset of his tenure.
