Former West Pokot Governor John Lonyangapuo has urged newly elected leaders in the region to shun engaging in politics instead serve members of the public as per the offices they were elected into.
Lonyangapuo claimed that some leaders had already started engaging into 2027 politics even before they started working for the people that ushered them into office.
He said some MCAs had started strategizing for the 2027 elections calling on them to settle in office and work for the electorate as per their manifestos.
“You cannot start talking about the 2027 elections when you haven’t even started working for the people who elected you. As elected leaders you should focus on delivering development to your people before thinking of the election,” stated Lonyangapuo.
The former governor called for intensification of education programmes in the county as a way of finding solutions to conflicts especially along the border counties.
Lonyangapuo intimated that the establishment of peace schools along the county borders had borne fruits, hence calm had been restored for the last five years.
“Our people need to be empowered through education and this is greatly achievable through establishment of more schools and posting of enough teachers. The current situation is that those teachers required are more than those present,” he said.
The former governor called for continued talks spearheaded by the current leaders in the region to help eliminate armed attacks being reported in some areas.
“During my tenure we used to hold peace talks with stakeholders from our neighbouring counties and it really worked. The peace talks should continue,” advised Lonyangapuo.
At the same time Sigor Member of Parliament (MP) Peter Lochakapong has called on the Ministry of Education to consider fast tracking registration of new schools in the region arguing that there has been a lot of bureaucracy that has denied residents right to education.
Lochakapong said there were many upcoming schools due for registration but education boards tasked to assess the schools take too long to consider them for registration.
“Our county is vast with few schools making many children lack access to education. We need to have the upcoming schools meant to reduce the distances be registered so that they can benefit from government capitation,” stated the MP.
He reiterates the Kenya Kwanza administration is very particular in eliminating so many bottlenecks that delay delivery of services to the public thus registration of schools should not be made to be so difficult to achieve.
The leaders spoke during the commissioning of a multimillion tuition block at Tartar Girls’ High school by the Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu.
By Richard Muhambe
