One of the things that fascinates me is the tenacity of our people. My father tells me very interesting stories of how life was hard as he was growing up in Budokomi,Bukhayo.That was in the 1930s. They used to survive on one “meal” a day. At times that would be a bowl of corn or millet, or just porridge. But they woke up early every morning and trekked all the way to Busende Primary school. My mum also has a similar story. She would run to Busende school from Igero village near Matayos on an empty stomach almost everyday but that did not stop her from excelling in her classwork. When my parents got married in the late 1950s, they moved and went to live with some relatives in Siwongo village, Samia. Life was not any better. My mum and the other women would wake up as early as 2:00 am and walk to the river to fetch drinking water. The journey was tedious and exhausting but there was no alternative. Carrying the water in traditional pots and buckets required skill and endurance. Every woman labored hard to master this skill as she was the primary source of drinking water for her family. That was in the 1960s.
I remember as a young boy growing up in Muyafwa village in the 1970s, we would always go to the river to bath. I loved swimming in the cool waters especially when the sun was hot. The only thing that scared me was the appearance of a snake or two in the river. We would always scream and run out of the river as fast as possible. One of my favorite sports was fishing using sufurias. Each catch make made me so happy that I could not sleep most of the night as I recalled my achievements in the river that day. The 1980's were full of adventures as I went to school in different parts of Kenya but I still loved going back home in Emaseno village, Korinda, during the school holidays. I will never forget the soccer matches that we had between the villages. We would prepare and psyche up for these competitions like real professionals.
Today much has changed in our socio-economic lives. There are mud and murram roads in most parts of Nambale Constituency. There is clean water in many villages. There is a health center in at least every location. There are a number of schools in every location etc. Nambale constituency also “boasts” of a good number of highly qualified and respected professionals in Medicine, Law, Engineering, Architecture, Theology, Education, Accounting etc.
However, when we compare the living standards of our people and the living standards of people in other parts of the world we see that a lot needs to be done in order to uplift the living standards of our people. The level of poverty in Nambale constituency is a dehumanizing. Our people are in a dire need for life skills, assets and resources. The poverty cycle must be broken by all means. It is not easy but it is possible. This is what I want to focus on. This is what I want to fight for. This is what I want to die for.
There is absolutely no reason why our girls should continue fetching water in buckets on their heads from the rivers in this century. We have the ability to empower our people so that each one may have access to clean and running water in or close to his/her home.
Most of our schools do not have good and equipped classrooms. Many of our children do without essential textbooks. Some of them do not even have school fees to go to secondary school after completion of their primary school education. We can change all these. We have enough resources that we can tap in and empower our children so that they may receive quality education both in primary and secondary school. Our primary schools also need to be upgraded to equip children with essential skills so that pupils who graduate from them become self-sustaining through income generating apprenticeships such as farming, dairy animals, chicken and food crops. This program can be done in phases on a locational level.
Our women also need to be empowered with resources that will enable them to become entrepreneurial. We need to make small loans available to them so that they may be able to venture into business and generate some income which will enable them to feed their families and take care of other essentials of life.
http://luhyadialogues.wordpress.com/2007/02/18/how-will-you-fulfill-your-promises/#comment-11
