Residents of Koduogo village in Uriri Constituency, Migori County are up in arms over the poor state of infrastructure and social amenities in their area that they say has affected their livelihood.
Among their concerns are low electricity connectivity, intermittent power black outs and un-reliable source of water, with their main water supply- a community borehole – that often runs dry during dry season.
The sorry situation forces them and particularly, the students from Koduogo Secondary School to walk for kilometres outside school premises in search of water.
Bernard Ojowi, a resident, said that the borehole does not produce water all year round, alleging that it was shallowly dug.
“This borehole is our only source of water, but it cannot provide water throughout the year as it was not drilled to the level required to produce adequate water,” he said.
Worse of all is the area road network that has seen total damage due to the ongoing heavy rainstorm and that has left a trail of destruction to most of the roads linking the local population to the existing social amenities including schools and local dispensaries are all destroyed.
Ojowi said that as schools reopened yesterday for the second term, their children are finding it difficult to access schools because the bridge they had been crossing has been swept away by floods.
“We call upon both the National and County Government to reconstruct the affected roads and bridges to enable school-going children and residents safely access schools and dispensaries,” he said and further revealed that they have gone nine months without electricity despite power cables running through their homes.
They had been informed by the Kenya Power officials that the blackouts were due to a disconnected electrical cable, but months later their efforts to get the problem fixed have been futile.
The residents told the press that lack of electricity has affected their businesses and increased insecurity in the area, noting that they are now forced to close shops early to avoid run-ins with crooks.
“We cannot operate our shops beyond 8:00 pm because of lack of electricity. We request our local leaders and Kenya Power to step in and fix the cables so that this centre can thrive as before,” he said.
They called upon their Governor, Dr Ochillo Ayacko, their area Member of Parliament Mark Nyamita and their Member of the County Assembly George Omamba to ensure that their concerns are addressed amicably
“It is unfair that we have not had electricity for close to a year and we face challenges of insufficient water and inaccessible roads, yet the leaders we elected to tackle our issues have done nothing,” said one Ms. Damacline Ogutu.
By Vivian Ochieng and Clares Utiku
