What is this disease, virus, the death of courageous leadership suffocating, smothering and scorching the Luhya nation? We are not being harbingers, promoters of pessimism or negativity. It’s just that there are too many living examples of failure, decay, non-performance, death of institutions, and organizations that are either in the heart of our homeland or that bear the imprint of ‘Luhyaness’.
What is happening to AFC Leopards, a football team that is supposed to be the personification of Luhya sportsmanship? It’s the whipping boy of the Kenya Premier League and is in shambles. It’s not worth the symbol of ‘Ingwe’, the Leopard. And just for comparison how is Gor Mahia, the Luo nation’s football team doing? They are winning the Kenya Premier League year in, year out. So who will salvage Luhya pride by re-engineering AFC Leopards back to its glorious past where it strode the footballing world like a colossus? It is a leadership question.
Mumias Sugar Company once the bluechip, only listed company from Luhya land on the Nairobi Stock Exchange is as dead as a dodo. Governor Oparanya after watching Mumias Sugar die a slow death since 2013 when he took up the leadership of Kakamega County thundered to Mumias Sugar and declared he was taking over the company. Where is it coming from? How will he resurrect the dead company? How many times has resurrection worked in the history of humanity? And under which law is Governor Oparanya taking over Mumias Sugar when there are secured creditors like banks that have a first right in law over all the assets of Mumias?
A few kilometres from the dead Mumias Sugar Company is Nzoia Sugar Company which is experiencing death pangs, making the last kicks of a dying company while the elected leadership dance themselves lame about who should be president in 2022 or who should be Governor.
Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology is equally in the throes of an indefinite succession war as to who should be its Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer?
The Standard Gauge Railway was diverted from Western Kenya to Nyanza without a whimper from its elected leadership. Special Economic Zones are being set up across Kenya to the exclusion of the Luhya Nation which is now conveniently classified as an extension of Luo-Nyanza by the President Uhuru Kenyatta–Raila Odinga power axis of Kenya. Yes, why shouldn’t we ask the question, what is the curse suffocating our homeland?
We are in the national and international limelight for the wrong reasons. Senseless murders in Matungu, con artistry in gold trading, name them. How long will this ill wind of impotence, lack of leadership, lack of courage blow across the homeland? Where are the warriors to stem the ill wind, to seek new direction? Governance and leadership are required and we must get it right to get a new set of sails for the homeland.