Leaders from the Luhya community have been urged to focus on more development rather than concentrating so much on cultural practices, even as most communities marked their respective cultural days on 26th December.
Speaking to West Media in Lugari Sub County, the Kakamega County Maragoli community chairman Mzee Lawrance Ligedele called on all the Luhya sub tribes leaders to start engaging their sub tribes in development projects.
He said it was regrettable that most communities spend a lot of time reminding the current generation of what used to be done in terms of culture like the naming of children, weddings, burying of the dead, how the land was divided to children, circumcisions among others without talking about development.
Though Mzee Ligedele agrees that today’s generation has never had time to sit with its grandparents to tell it more about culture, he said some of the cultural activities have been passed by time and that they should not over concentrate on them.
He said they should only focus on important cultural practices that are beneficial to the community and spend most of their time on development matters.
“I don’t want them to divert from their true culture but they should know this world is changing so they must go with changes as they keep their tradition and more so the traditions that are so important and at the same time focus more on development and the changes that are there in the world,” said Ligedele
He said the Maragoli community in Kakamega County has initiated various development projects in Likuyani and Lugari sub counties which are helping the community forge ahead.
He said the community was running a Sacco known as ‘Andimi’ where they borrow loans at a low interest rate and invest in various development projects.
“We do believe a maragoli home is not supposed to be a poor home. It must be a home which is well organized, that home should have at least some cows, sheep, poultry among others,” said Ligedele.
He also revealed that the Maragoli community valued and prioritize education and they were committed to ensuring their children are educated to the highest level.
Ligedele’s sentiments were echoed by the Chekalini location Maragoli community chairman Mr. Silas Chanzu who is also in charge of culture. He said some of the cultural practices were unnecessary in the modern society.
He said as the Maragoli community in Kakamega County they were narrowing down to important practices which they feel will help the young generation.
He also disclosed that apart from the ‘Andimi Sacco’ which is based in Likuyani, Maragolis in Chekalini location were working on forming a new cooperative society to support their activities. “We have close to 300 registered members here in Chekalini alone and the registration is still on. Soon we will be launching our Mungoma cooperative society,” said Chanzu.