Lusaka revives Bungoma sporting traditionLusaka revives Bungoma sporting tradition

Governor of Bungoma county Ken Lusaka during Sunday review interview at his residence in the county. PICTURES BY ISAAC WALE

Webuye town is pale shadow of its former self. After the death of the Webuye Paper Mills which had been the backbone of the local economy, life ebbed away. The once busy town now looks desolate and only a few people are out and about on this cold Saturday morning. 

We meet Bungoma Governor Ken Lusaka at his Webuye residence, shortly after 8 am. The former permanent secretary and DC is reading the day’s newspapers. He was among the first public servants to declare that he would quit his job to run for governor.

And  since he studied decentralisation at the university, his decision is easy to understand. He also started off on the wrong foot with reports that his government had allocated Sh100 million to fight pornography.

Governor Lusaka says the greatest casuality of the new Constitution was centralisation, and Kenyans are yet to internalise that, hence their shock at what is happening on the ground. 

Q: What goes on in your mind when you drive past the silent Webuye Pan Paper Mills?

A: It is a sorry state of affairs. Webuye is now a dead town. The paper factory is under receivership, and the lenders are being sorted out. But we need to ask ourselves whether we have the raw materials and right technology. If revival of the paper factory will need to address some of the key concerns, then we are willing to let go. But we are saying that no decision should be made without involving us.

However, we have potential for growth of industries. Coca Cola has expressed interest to start a plant here. We want to fix the airstrips here in order to ease transport. To fly out of this place to Nairobi, one must go to Kisumu.

Q: What was the justification for allocating Sh100 million to fight pornography?

A: That was unfair misrepresentation of the situation. The Sh100 million was an allocation for an array of issues which fell in the same cluster including fighting drug abuse, pornography and rehabilitation of street children. But somebody maliciously created the wrong impression that all the money was allocated to fight pornography and left out the other elements.

It was a lesson to some of us on how propaganda can overshadow facts. Even recently, they said that I had spent millions of county money to entertain Kanda Bongoman. I never did such a thing. 

Q: What ground have you covered?

A: Setting structures was an important priority. We now have a working team. This includes the Executive, chief officers, sub county administrators, the Public Service Board and award administrators are being interviewed. We have set up a task force to delineate what will be dealt with, village administrators and other committees.

Q: One of the criticisms of the new governance structure is its huge public administration cost. There are too many public servants from both governments serving the same constituency. Do you consider this tenable?

A:  Blame the 2010 Constitution. Kenyans are saying there are far too many administrators taking care of the same people. That’s why the national government is crying over the wage bill. I was part of a team that was tasked to explore ways of harmonising the county administration and provincial administration.

We got a lot of resistance because of bad blood between the two systems at the inception of the devolved governments. We must accept that there is a problem. Now that we have sobered up, my proposal is that we adopt an arrangement in which the provincial administration will be answerable to the county governments but report to national government on specified areas such as security and national programmes in consultation with the county governments. 

Q: Education standards have been steadily declining in this region. Does the situation keep you awake at night?
A: I am extremely concerned. Schools such as Friends School Kamusinga and Kibabii that used to perform well were nowhere in the last KCSE exams. We want to find out what is the cause of the decline and see what the county government can do to urgently address the situation. Besides secondary schools, we are also addressing nursery school education which falls under our mandate. We have recruited 2,000 early childhood education teachers. We are in the process of tendering for the construction of three ECD classes in all public schools in the county.

Q: Accessing some areas in this county is a nightmare. What are you doing to fix the roads?
A: We are upgrading our roads in places such as Bungoma town. We have worked on the road from Sikata to the town. Serious road works are going on in Kimilili and Webuye. We have advertised for the repair of rural roads. We don’t want to flout any procurement regulations. Plans are at an advanced stage for works on the major roads which will involve the national government. Malaysians have come up with new technology in the construction of roads. Bungoma and Meru counties will benefit with a trial on a 10 km stretch of road. Once approved, similar roads will be rolled out across the county. We have opened the Chwele-Sirisia-Lwakhakha road. People are very excited.

Q: Bungoma used to be the hub of sports, producing some of the country’s great runners and footballers. What went wrong?

A: It is true. We used to produce a lot players for AFC Leopards and Harambee Stars. We don’t do so anymore because of lack of policy and talent management system. We have launched a youth tournament to start at the ward level. This will enable us identify talent from the grassroot level. This is the home of footballers. We have raw talent here. We want to start a high attitude training centre.

The county government has decided to involve sports legends such as Ben Jipcho who won silver medal in the 3,000 metres steeplechase at the 1972 summer Olympics behind his compatriot Kipchoge Keino. Jipcho is providing wisdom and acting as a role model. In fact, the county has launched a programme to preserve our historical sites and honour our heroes. We have started with Sudi Namachanja, the father of  Maurice Cardinal Otunga. We are also working on preservation of Chetambe, the place where the Tajonis fought several wars with the Bukusu.

Q: What are the other priority areas?

A: Besides roads and education, I have dedicated my energies to agriculture, health, industry and health. On health, we have procured 40 beds and mattresses for the Bumula health centre. The facility had no bed or mattress.

The county government has distributed drugs worth Sh80 million. The national government used to procure drugs worth Sh40 million for the same area. We have dug a borehole for the Naitili health centre, allocated money to improve a laboratory at Kibabii and we are procuring ambulances.

Q: Bungoma is endowed with rich agricultural soils and abundance of human labour yet it cannot feed its people and the poverty levels are high?

A: We are working on agriculture. And on this we are going to shock the rest the country. We have just held inter-denominational prayers to usher in the planting season. Our plan is to transform Bungoma into the food basket of Western Kenya. We have everything we need from good soils, labour and fantastic climate for farming.

We have supplied subsidised fertiliser to farmers. We have come up with the Mavuno initiative in which we will give 200 select farmers free fertiliser and other input in every ward for maize cultivation. We have ordered over 40,000 bags of fertiliser.  That is what was lacking before.

We expect to produce a lot of maize to feed our people and sell to the rest of the county in the near future. We have purchased 52 green houses and we are distributing them to the youth. We have tendered for construction of a tannery in Bungoma to add value to hides and skins. You know chicken is closer to the hearts of our people. We are starting the first ever chicken slaughter house in Chwele which will develop into a processing plant.

Q: Farmers continue to grow sugarcane despite the fact that it has failed to improve their lot. Do you agree that they should abandon the crop?

A: The production cost is very high. We are encouraging farmers to diversify. Our concern is that proceeds of sugar products only benefit the millers. My plan is to ensure weigh bridges are built as close to farms as much as possible to prevent losses to farmers who lose cane while transporting it over long distances to factories.

Q: What is your comment on the planned privatisation of sugar millers?

A: The county government must be given priority to purchase it. We can pay in instalments and offload shares to farmers. I was lucky to go on a trip of governors to Brazil. We went to learn how they are using technology to manage cane.

Certain things can be applied here. But more importantly we must address the issue of marketing for sugar. A lot of millers are stuck with huge volumes of sugar due to the flooding of the local market with cheap sugar imports.

Q: What five things do you want to achieve?

A: If I had all the money I will fix roads, develop and sustain a strong cottage industry to create jobs for the youth, fix agriculture to ensure maximum benefits for the farmer, fix health to prevent deaths and see that every family has access to water from the nearest point possible. But I must tell Kenyans that devolution is not one-off thing.

Our experience is like ploughing virgin land or a take-off while flying. The turbulence was terrible, we are now getting to a comfortable situation and hope we will land well.