Luhya will have 1 presidential candidate-Atwoli
COTU secretary general Francis Atwoli has declared that come 2017 general elections the Luhya community will have only one candidate for the presidency and all Luhyas votes will go to one basket who will be the flag bearer of the Luhya community.
While addressing parents during a fundraising at St. Paul’s Elwanikha Girls secondary school in Nambale constituency Atwoli said that despite the Luhya community having several presidential aspirant come next year May they would name the flag bearer who would run for the presidency from this community.
“I know we have several presidential candidates from Moses Wetangula, Musalia Mudavadi and Cyrus Jirongo but as leaders from western region under the guidance of the chairman of western parliamentary caucus who is also the Nambale MP John Bunyasi we will sit and come up with only one flag bearer from this community.” Atwoli said.
He urged the luhya community not to be divided by the leaders who are campaigning adding that he would not allow it to happen under his watch further warning those leaders who are not treating the Luhyas with respect and claiming that the Luhyas are divided they would have a shock of their life.
“There are people out there claiming that Luhyas are different sub-tribes that are divided but I want to tell them that we are just different clans and not sub tribes and come next year all our votes will go to one basket.” Atwoli added.
He further rebuked last Saturday violence that were witnessed when Ford Kenya party leader and CORD co-principal Moses Wetangula was being barred to launch his presidential bid from Muliro gardens in Kakamega saying that every Kenyan has a right to congregate and launch his bid anywhere in this country adding that come next year they would use to chose the only flag bearer from this community.
Atwoli urged Bunyasi to call all leaders especially Wetangula and Kakamega governor Wycliffe Oparanya and sit them down to remove all differences so that such an act is never repeated again.
He urged the current crop of leaders from western Kenya to follow the footsteps of our former leaders in the like of Martin Shikuku, Masinde Muliro, Moses Mudavadi, Peter Kibisu, Daniel Moss and many more who were fostering for the unity of the luhya community and they all spoke from the same script.
Atwoli further said that all trade unions will meet next year may 20th and have a conference which will deliberate on the direction they will take on who to become the next president as they have been mistreated by different politicians that they have agitated and voted for.
While addressing the issue of corruption Atwoli was very categorical on how the government has looked aside instead of fighting corruption that has found its way in our schools especially universities urging that it is high time corruption was introduced in the current curriculum as a way to stem it out.
“Each year this country loses 600 billion shillings in corruption but the government has gone Mum on it. He claimed. corruption is beginning in our schools and the other day we saw a student in the university issuing money to students so as to vote for him yet the government did nothing.”
“If money is taken to the university so that students can vote for a particular student leader then our students grow knowing that to do something you must give out money. what does that show what our country is like?” Atwoli asked.
Nambale member of parliament John Bunyasi thanked the cabinet secretary of education Dr. Fred Matiangi for cracking the whip on Kenya national examination council and disbanding the board adding that they need to be prosecuted after exam malpractices were experienced in last year’s national exams.
He wondered what criteria was used to council; results for 242 students in Nambale high school yet the exam was accessible on different sites from anywhere in the country asking that more investigations should be done to determine whether other schools did not get the examination prior.
“Nambale high school has been our leading school in the county and I wonder whether phones in this area had stronger internet reception than other schools or what? It was a very shameful year for this country which should never be repeated.” Bunyasi lamented.
This remarks were echoed by his counterpart Florence Mutua who is the Busia women representative saying that it was so shameful the rate at which education standards were deteriorating in this county as so many schools had not received results apart from Nambale high school in both the primary and secondary section.
“Many schools especially in Butula sub county got grade Y and apart from I and Hon. Bunyasi there is no other leader talking about how the standards of education in our county have gone bad.” She said.
“I ask the CEC of education in the county government of Busia to work with the county education office to look into ways that will get back Busia county back to its track in terms of education standards. Mutua added.
Bunyasi further warned parents not to accept the new education curriculum being proposed by the government saying that the current curriculum is the best and all that should be done is looking for ways to correct it.
“Our children are in school by 6 in the morning and they finish classes at 6 in the evening and that is what we do not want. He said. We need our curriculum simplified as it was earlier where pupils went to school at 8 and left at 4 and we saw them performing much better than today as they had time to play and even carry out other activities unlike today.”
He said that as parliamentarians they would not allow such a motion to see the light in the national assembly as they would not allow different curriculum to be experimented on the children.
He asked TSC to start paying teachers who are being paid by parents and also ECD teachers to ease the burden of parents and also boost morale of those teachers as some schools in his constituency have one TSC teachers and the rest have been employed by parents remarks that were echoed by Mutua.
St. Paul Elwanikha girls was started by the Nambale CDF to increase the number of schools and reduce the walking distant among students whereas the fundraising was able to meet its goal as per the schools target which was 1.5 million shillings to put up more classrooms as the school has only 2 classes one in form 1 and the other form 2
