When I first visited Homa Bay town slightly more than one decade ago, there was no signs and symptoms that we had arrived at an urban centre let alone a historical town - save for the government offices that hosted national administration officers most of whom commuted from Kisumu where life was softer with variety aplenty.
Social exposure should be included in the education curriculum as a critical pillar of early childhood development, as it changes individual perception, rewires preconceived stereotypes and demystifies cultural myths passed on from generations that never travelled outside their villages nor developed a reading culture to expand their mental horizon.
Contrary to popular belief, not all Luos have interacted with a fish-hook, can swim to save their lives, and apologise to fish before beginning the meticulous ritual of inviting it into our alimentary canal every time food is ready. The Luo might be a homogenous cultural bloc in antecedent and blood, but the diversity of cultural practice and choices in individual behaviour has ensured they explore the best of both worlds without losing touch with the land in which their umbilical cord was buried.
Until I arrived in Homa Bay town for the first time in my life, the only information we had heard from the generation of our parents was that the place was nestled at the farthest end of the world and travel was both treacherous and draining – and this was corroborated by the few women from Homa Bay who were married around our home area. Luos being a community with a DNA for relationship building, the limited exposure to newfound lands brought about by limited transport options and state of inland infrastructure conveniently locked Luo Nyanza into segments of proximity.
As a student of political history, we learnt from Civics classes about a district called South Nyanza whose headquarters were in Homa Bay, and so the expectations of the town during my first visit was at polar variance with the reality on the ground. For the most part, it was still a rural outpost with pockets of colonial infrastructure most of which had started falling off from a sustained period of neglected disrepair. The grass clothing the vicinity was not only jilted green but also unkempt and encroaching, giving the town a village feel with a touch of disillusionment.
Coupled with the humid air and the spartan economy, there was nothing much to look up to Homa Bay then, other than spending copious amounts of your day cooling off under tree canopies as you joined the beeline to plead for intermittent service from government bureaucrats mostly demotivated and forlorn looking. God had the option of creating humans with cold-blood, but his infinite wisdom installed in us a natural thermostat to help in the regulation of body temperature. Had we been lizards who have to warm themselves on rocks during the day and cool themselves in moist places at night, we would’ve been vulnerable to other jungle beasts more ferocious in predatory intent and highly adaptive to taking down warming prey.
You should visit Homa Bay town today. Revered for its scenic hills and picturesque shoreline, we now have an urban uplift programme that is both pleasing to the eye and impactful in the pocket. National government goodwill is back to iron the creases and support the intentional local leadership. Locals are impressed by the progress coming to their eyes and there’s popular demand to let the bromance between the two political protagonists stick. It is Kwame Nkrumah who famously panel-beat the popular verse in Mathew 6:33, calling on all African leaders of goodwill to seek first – as a matter of priority – the political kingdom and, “and all these things shall be added unto you.”
For a long time the Luo have burdened themselves with the conscience of a nation often at the expense of their progress, when others have chosen to be adaptive to the political and economic realities as they play the long game in the emancipation of their people. Famed for producing classical scholars who believe in the books they read of transformational countries run by collective merit and bureaucratic openness, the Luo have stuck on the promise of the image of a perfect union moulded in strict work ethic eschewing shortcuts to success in every sense of the word.
Renewed political goodwill
The shift in mindset may have arrived sixty one years late, but as the English say; it’s always preferable to be late than never to arrive at the scene at all.
The Luo finally understand that despite being a sexagenarian nation, Kenya still suffers from teething problems that may require more than dental surgery to get it back to chewing gum and scaling the stairs at the same time. The growing malleability in political mindset among the Luo has invited a paradigm shift from fighting for an imaginary country that flows in milk and honey to a spiritual awakening about a country of flaws that needs collaborative effort that transcends ethno-cultural and sociodemographic barriers. They’ve put their hands up and offered to meet those entrusted with leadership halfway, in the hope of moving the needle of economic emancipation especially among communities that had been left behind based on structural marginalisation.
This renewed political goodwill would not have amounted to anything much had those for whom the gains are intended for weren’t ready for the sponge effect. Thankfully and visibly, locals in Homa Bay town are turning up for duty in their numbers at the construction sites around the hood, dignifying the lives of their families and giving promise to the young ones watching that finally they can aspire to dream.
When an intentional government meets a resilient people, what you get is a progression spark that not only lights up the positive spirit but also creates a mindset shift to aspire for good things that will lead to a collective state of nirvana – and for a community that has risen from deep adversity and kept going every time they came a cropper with political expectations, the initiative to transport the skyline of Homa Bay is the only remaining revolution that is yet to be felt in the Kavirondo Gulf.
