Members of the Luo community have been told stop sub dividing their parcels of land into smaller pieces for the sole purpose of constructing homesteads as the practice condemns them to abject poverty.
According to West Asembo Ward MCA Ambrose Akuno, members of the community have prioritized construction of homesteads as opposed to farming, thus leading to poverty.
Akuno said instead sub dividing land for each family member to set up a homestead, the community should consider consolidating land so that families can settle in one part of their land, while the remaining portion is used for agricultural production.
He said that the need to fulfill the cultural practice of constructing individual homesteads has left many families landless, while others are forced to use their meager resources to buy land elsewhere making them even poorer.
“How can someone with very little resources, educate his children, feed his family and at the same time buy land elsewhere and put up a home? In our villages, if someone manages to buy land then they may not have resources to educate their children,” Akuno said.
The ward representative said the retrogressive cultural practice has forced many families into subsistence farming since they practice agriculture in their small pieces of land instead of large scale farming had they consolidated their land.
He said that due to the increasing population and diminishing land resources it was no longer prudent for members of the Luo community to prioritize the culture of constructing homesteads over the wellbeing of their families.
Akuno was speaking in Siger village Thursday, where he constructed a house for a poor family of six which had been living in a dilapidated shelter after being forced to have their own homestead in fulfillment of the Luo cultural practice.
At the same time, Akuno asked the county government to consider allocating funds to MCAs that they can use to construct houses for vulnerable families.
“We have a lot of families with no proper housing in our wards and our electorate expect us to render support by building houses for them. So far we do it from our own pockets and it is high time that the county government supports the initiative by allocating funds to make it sustainable,” he said.
In Rarieda Sub County, area MP Dr. Otiende Amolo runs an initiative known as “Ondoa Nyasi” which has a mandate of constructing houses for widows and destitute families.
Former area MP Eng. Nicholas Gumbo has also on several occasions come on board to construct houses for poor families who cannot afford to have decent housing.
Under the current constitution, housing is a basic human right but the devolved function has remained dormant in Siaya County with only one staff appointed to run the entire department since 2013.
By Brian Odeng’
