By Anderson Ojwang
The needless and unwarranted fights between supporters of Homa Bay Governor Gladys Wanga and Permanent Secretary for Internal Security Dr. Raymond Omollo must be reined in and brought to an end.
The two are prominent daughter and son of Nyanza who must not be paired in a ring to engage in a nonsense war that will only trifle the community’s progression and development. This is aptly captured in Hebrews 13: “Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.” This is what we expect as a community.
Wanga, by virtue of being the first woman governor from Western Kenya and the ODM national chairperson, deserves her respect within and without the boundaries of Nyanza.
Dr. Omollo, the senior-most community member in President William Ruto’s administration, equally deserves respect, and his name should not be dragged into these petty and useless fights that do not serve the interest of President Ruto. Psalm 133:3: “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.” Let us be peacemakers and not warmongers. The peaceful coexistence of the two leaders is beneficial to the community in its development agenda.
The street demonstrations against Wanga must come to an end, while the social media battles targeting the two leaders must be reined in and stopped.
Similarly, political mechanization against Omollo must also be reined in and avoided at all costs, because in the end, the community will be the main culprit and loser. Romans 12:10: “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
It is time to make peace and allow dialogue to take precedence, while the chicken fights must be avoided at all costs.
The two leaders—one a technocrat and the other a politician—give Nyanza the sweetest ingredient to lobby for projects for the region and to also market President Ruto’s agenda in Nyanza and other parts of the country.
Currently, Nyanza is witnessing unprecedented development from President Ruto’s government, and that is what the community wants. The street demonstrations and boardroom wars must be brought to an end before it is late.
This war opens the community to outside infiltration with ulterior agendas to fuel the conflict further in order to portray the community as cheap, violent, and war-prone. We must act decisively and end this war.
It is not lost to the community that the fight between the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and the late Tom Joseph Mboya after independence left the community with huge socio-economic and political consequences that it has never fully recovered from to date.
The effects of that battle still haunt the community, and that is why we must pause and ask the tough questions: Is this war necessary, and how is it helping the community and the people of Nyanza?
It is unfortunate that even before the community concludes the mourning of her leader Raila Amolo Odinga, some quarters are pushing for a useless battle between Wanga and Omollo.
Omollo and Wanga, if by any chance there is any misunderstanding, should be allowed to iron out any form of differences between themselves.
If such an avenue fails, then we can engage the services of the Luo Council of Elders, which now comprises eminent personalities from the region.
As a community, we must learn not to fight and talk with food in our mouths. It is bad manners that may deny us future opportunities at the king’s palace.
It is time the Council of Elders and eminent persons from the community engage the two and have an amicable resolution of any possible misunderstanding.
