Denis Onyango: We DON’T ELECT the surname in Homa Bay !

Date: December 24, 2014

2230

By Denis Onyango
A question has been posed to the folks of Homa Bay County: Is the surname the repository of leadership? Homa Bay produced Mboya. Now that was a great man. For ages, the name ‘Mboya’ has remained the most compelling surname in this part of the world and yonder. When he passed on, Homa Bayians mourned and grieved but ultimately accepted and moved on.

We still have fond memories of the guy whose statue graces Tom Mboya street. This is most evident every other match day when Gor Mahia fans go to pay respect to their beloved hero by doing whatever it is they usually do at the statue.

However, Homa Bayians have never insisted that another one of the Mboyas should lead them. These folks know that any other person may have the surname of Mboya but there can never be another Thomas Joseph Mboya. In fact, Homa Bayians have named so many of their children after Mboya but they all appreciate that the one and only one Mboya died in 1969 and he will only ressurect when Jesus the Nazarene comes back!

Homa Bayians have watched with little attention as folks from other parts of the country try to perpetuate dynasties. We have watched as other folks experiment with the Kenyattas, Odingas, Mois and Nyagas with varying degrees of success but never once did we imagine that we should also experiment with any of the Mboyas.

The tragedy with this kind of experiment is that it shapes our thinking to believe that leadership qualities can only take abode in certain families with certain surnames. Now I hear these folks who have perfected the art of disenfranchising the masses are saying that because the late Gerald Otieno Kajwang was such a brilliant law maker,they will impose another one from the same gene pool on them. Homa Bayians rejected the proposal that Baba should represent them. They fear no one!

Like Mboya before him, there can only be one Gerald Otieno Kajwang. If he goes, he is gone and the only time he can come back is when the Nazarene clears him on the day of resurrection! There was only one Mboya. There was only one Kajwang and sharing a name or father will not make you to be him.

Those are some of the most fundamental questions that the keen, analytical, observant, , objective and wise folks of Homa Bay will ask themselves when they go to the polls.

These are folks who have learnt to separate raw emotions from logic and with circumspection, they will be seeking for the most outstanding and compelling representative, the surname notwithstanding.

I will not judge any candidate but if perhaps better candidates have been ignored because they did not posses a name that appeals to certain people, then the folks of Homa Bay who have previously manufactured these surnames must stand up and state in no uncertain terms that they can yet manufacture another from nothing. That name might as well be the seemingly anonymous Onyango. Who knows?

Denis Onyango is SENATE Aspirant in the upcoming Homa Bay county by elections

https://www.kenya-today.com/opinion/denis-onyango-dont-elect-surname-homa-bay