Elders want a say in the relocation of Prison

Homa Bay County, Monday, April 24, 2023

K.N.A By Sitna Omar

The Luo Council of Elders have opposed plans by the state to relocate the Homa Bay G.K Prison to a land in Ndhiwa Sub County.

The elders who claimed that the government had plans of relocating the prison to the said land in Kuoyo village within Kanyamwa Kosewe ward, are now calling for public participation before the state goes ahead with its plan.

Early this month, the National Government had given directives that the prison be relocated to another area within the county to give way for the expansion of Tom Mboya University on the 27-acre land.

The government was yet to deliberate on which sub county was suitable to host the facility.

The elders reiterated that the land was already earmarked for the establishment of a Campus.

Led by the Council’s Chair Joseph Ogada, they said the land was acquired by Ndhiwa Community Development Fund (CDF) with plans of setting up the Kuoyo Campus which was supposed to be a Constituent University of Tom Mboya upon the latter’s elevation to a full university status.

“This land was reserved for the university not prison and we shall condemn with the strongest terms possible any attempt to the contrary,” said the Chairman.

The elders explained that an educational facility would fully benefit the region instead of a prison which has no benefit besides rehabilitating wrong doers.

“The establishment of the school would develop the sub-county economically, socially and academically as opposed to what a prison would provide even if it were a maximum prison,” he said.

The elders believed that the educational facility would provide a traditional sense of identity, conserve Ruma National Park by providing scientific research on wild life conservation as well as agriculture and create employment opportunities for the locals.

“Constructing the university here will also end the demeaning of the retired Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and other dignitaries who witnessed the laying of foundation stone and the fencing of the site last year February,” he stated.

The elders claimed that the idea for a university was initiated in the year 2011 and was later revived when the late President Mwai Kibaki visited the region.

They echoed that they would not stay quiet and allow the prison to be set up before the public are engaged in that decision.

“In as much as the two institutions, the prison and the university are both public, we cannot accept this decision without proper public participation,” they said.

Courtesy K.N.A