Sociologist Viscount K’Owuor cites that economic and social advancement for Luo Nyanza will come if the Luo Community is willing to make the right changes.

These include social, political and economic changes to spur growth from the grassroots, without necessarily relying on successes and failures in national politics.

How can this be done? What changes should the Luo community make? Here’s what sociologist K’Owuor suggests:

“As the Luo community, we should not get worried or fear anything. Our destiny lies in our own hands .

We a lone can shape that destiny. Not anyone else.

And in shaping that destiny, social change is critical.

We need to deeply examine certain issues; culture, habits, orientations, dispositions , priorities, values etc.

For example, a robust approach to business , including Agribusiness would work wonders. But to excel in business , we must develop a business culture.

I’ve in many occasions shared what a business culture entails; honesty, cooperation , thrift , networks , etc.

Business also needs a new breed of leaders who value progress.

For example, if you look at the infrastructure beyond Kisumu’s CBD , it is all dilapidated. Today , many roads have been cut off by the long rain of the previous night. How can business thrive with poor roads ?

Secondly, none of our leaders talk about the employment and deployment of Extension Officers to catalyze agriculture. You know that agriculture is not in our DNA. Therefore a lot of training and support is needed to empower our farmers.

Thirdly, there’s acute shortage of affordable housing in our towns , including the city of Kisumu. This is because landowners have little capacity to mobilize resources for real estate.

Despite this lack of capacity, it has been extremely difficult to bring our people together to form Housing Cooperatives , or just any cooperative society in the magnitude that is needed.

These traditional homesteads within the city means we are yet to fully exploit opportunities that a city should represent.

Every other engagement we have , including political engagements, will be determined by our values. We set our value system right , and we shall be productive in any endeavor.

So we need to look at such issues differently and begin a journey of transformation.

But I can assure you , such change begins with change of character and individual priorities.

It begins with an individual.”