Uhuru's visit to Nyanza long overdue

Saturday, February 15, 2014 - 00:00 -- BY STAR EDITOR

The announcement that President Uhuru Kenyatta is due to tour 'Luo Nyanza' in early March is welcome news indeed.

It's not that the President has not been to this part of the country since his inauguration: he was there to attend the funeral of the late trade unionist, Okuta Osiany.

 But this is the first time he is going there on the routine presidential tours of 'development projects', in keeping with an old Kenyan tradition that in the course of such tours, the President gets to talk to local leaders and to listen to their concerns.

 When giving a lecture to mark Kenya's 50th independence anniversary last year, former President Mwai Kibaki mentioned that one of the factors that has kept Kenya on the path of relative stability and peace, is that Kenyan leaders have a capacity for compromise and for postponing their political ambitions to a future election.

 This is what we hope to see when Uhuru visits Luo Nyanza.

 The area may have been strongly opposed to his Jubilee alliance during the March 2013 election. But the election is over; the Supreme Court has ruled that Uhuru Kenyatta was validly elected; and there can be no excuse for even the most “hardcore” of Raila Odinga's supporters treating the President with anything but the most complete courtesy due to a Kenyan President.

 But by the same token, the President has to demonstrate that whether the region voted for him or not, he appreciates that the residents have the same rights as other Kenyan taxpayers, to the services which only the government can provide.

 The TNA secretary general, Onyango Oloo, himself a native of this very region, said it well: “There is no political motive behind the visit; this is just part of the government's mandate to work with all Kenyans in matters of development.”

 And the ODM leaders of that region - whatever may be their personal feelings towards the President - should be at the forefront in welcoming the President to their region, and explaining to him what they would like to have his government do for them.

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