Busia Governor Paul Otuoma has expressed commitment to champion the rights of women by eliminating any barriers that can stop their progression.
Speaking during a forum to mark the International Women’s Day at Busia Agricultural Training College, Otuoma noted that women have faced several challenges ranging from discrimination, suppression of their voices, socio economic marginalization, sexual abuse and political exclusion among others.
“We want to make sure that there is no discrimination in our workforce, the constitution talks of 30 percent gender balancing but we can even achieve 50;50,” he said.
He added that his administration will avail communication technology and incubation centres to connect with internet as well as prioritize benchmarking regionally and globally
“We are committed to ensuring that this county is food secure through commercialization of agriculture,” he said, adding that the county will provide farm inputs alongside extension services.
The governor stated that his administration wants to recruit more extension officers to help local farmers and will also offer fertilizer subsidy.
“Our farmers do not need to wait for extension officers when we have challenges but the officers should be visiting farmers in the field and advise them accordingly,” he said.
Otuoma urged KALRO to work closely with the agricultural extension officers to ensure that extension services are available at the door steps of farmers.
He said Busia should be a champion of cassava production since it has been grown in the area for a long time, also adding that the county trade volumes in groundnuts alone amounts to Sh1 billion that they aim to increase to Sh 6 billion.
“We need to work together with our farmers so that the planned industrial park at Nasewa can have raw materials,” the Governor said noting the county will also embark on the use of technology to market the produce from farmers through aggregation technology.
“There is already an investor willing to support the use of aggregation technology before the end of this year,” he said.
On his part, Busia Deputy Governor Arthur Odera condemned the proponents of LGBTQ arguing that they do not respect other people’s culture.
Odera argued that promoters of LGBTQ are out to confuse Africans and their children so that they go against God’s plan for humanity.
Busia Acting County Commissioner Kipchumba Ruto echoed the Deputy Governor’s sentiments urging women to shun such practices and bring up their children in the accepted African culture.
By Salome Alwanda
