President Uhuru Kenyatta’s visit in Nyanza is what will be as the greatest achievement from the people of the Lake side. The people have missed the opportunity to drink from the President pot for the very long time.
The visit is seen as the end of starving to the people of the Lake side. For a moment the visit of President Uhuru is compared to the return of the Messiah.
The Residents have a long list which they will be ready to sing their usual song of “serikali saidia.” The visit is not just any other visit, it is one of the kind which will not leave Nyanza the way it was.
THE LIST OF WISHES
Scholars, and political and religious leaders in Nyanza are compiling a wish list to present to President Uhuru Kenyatta, who will tour the region on Thursday.
The old wish of revival of the region’s ailing sugar factories and clearing water hyacinth from Lake Victoria are the key items featuring in the list that shall be handed to opposition leader Raila Odinga, who will in turn pass it to his “brother” Uhuru Kenyatta.
The leaders’ group said the region’s former major economic boosters – Muhoroni and Miwani sugar factories, now in receivership – needed a breath of life from the President.
“Their closure is a blow to more than 500,000 residents who depended on them for economic and social survival” said MP Onyango Koyoo (Muhoroni).
He asked the State to consider the option of bailing them out rather than putting them in receivership. The leaders said they were sad that Lake Victoria was choking with hyacinth and robbing fishermen and water transporters of their livelihoods by the day. They expressed optimism that a lasting solution that would see the weed eradicated would be reached during Uhuru’s visit.
‘’Water bodies like Lake Victoria provide food and minerals, generate oxygen, absorb greenhouse gases and mitigate the impacts of climate change,” said environmental scholar Ben Nyakinya.
Mr Nyakinya said lakes determined weather patterns and temperatures and also served as highways for seaborne international trade. He urged the State to deal with the hyacinth menace once and for all.
Minority Leader and ODM Chairman John Mbadi said the leaders were still working on a comprehensive copy of the wish list that would be handed to the President during his Thursday visit to help fast-track the region’s growth.
Do you think this will be start of a good relationship between President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Nyanza region?