In this 21 century, every county is expected to have good infrastructure for easy access. However, this is not the case in some parts of Homa Bay County.
For many years, residents of Omako Koth and
The situation is so bad such that the only better road they can boast of is the Homa Bay-Mbita tarmacked road which is about 5-7 kilometers away.
The situation forces the villagers to have to trek for many kilometers to access health care. The situation becomes worse during burials as people have to carry caskets for all those kilometers on their backs.
Steve Biko, a resident of Marera one of the victims of the situation after being forced to carry the casket of his mother Zilpa Oloo on his back, with the help of fellow villagers from the morgue to the village for burial, tells the pain of living in the area
“It was painful for me to carry the body of my mother home from the main road. The situation aggravated the sorrow that was afflicting us,” Biko told the Standard.
An 80-year-old Michael Ojwang, also a resident, said that the situation has made it very necessary for families to have young and energetic men.
Failure to this, they are forced to procure the service of youthful men to help them with the job, which can be rather expensive.
“The problem comes when a family with an inadequate number of young men loses a loved one. At times bereaved families have to spend more money on hiring people who carry the caskets,” said Ojwang as quoted by the Standard.
Kanyamwa Kologi MCA David Oloo, however, gave a ray of hope to the locals saying that 12 kilometres of road will be constructed soon to address the plight of his locals.