VZCZCXYZ0032
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHNR #0916 0601012
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 011012Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY NAIROBI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9937
INFO RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA PRIORITY 8238
RUEHDR/AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM PRIORITY 4489
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA PRIORITY 1159
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 1864
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1843

UNCLAS NAIROBI 000916 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS, DEPARTMENT FOR H, 
DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS TO USDA FOR ROBIN TILSWORTH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KDEM PREL EAID EAGR KE
SUBJECT: NYANZA IS ISOLATED, RESIDENTS TELL AMBASSADOR 
 
¶1.  The people of Nyanza are isolated from Nairobi, residents 
and officials from the Province told the Ambassador during 
his one-day trip to the area February 21.  While there, he 
participated in a school dedication, presented awards to CDC 
Kenyan staff, and launched a food security assistance 
program.  Nyanza remains one of Kenya's most densely 
populated, poor, and heavily HIV/AIDS affected regions, 
characterized by strong tribal identity (Luo), and 
increasingly at political odds with the government.  The 
province is a case-study in Kenyan personality politics with 
favorite son MP Raila Odinga, whose parliamentary 
constituency is actually in Nairobi, remaking his political 
career out of being on the opposite side of the government. 
 
IT'S ALWAYS A GOOD TIME FOR POLITICS 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶2.  At Odinga's invitation, the Ambassador traveled to Nyanza 
Province in Western Kenya on Lake Victoria to attend a 
ceremony to rename two schools in Kogelo, Siaya District for 
U.S. Senator Barack Obama.  Obama's grandparents donated the 
land on which the institutions were built.  The Senator sent 
a letter to the Kogelo community, which the Ambassador 
presented during the function, recognizing the community's 
dedication to education.  The Odinga family's political and 
ancestral roots are in Nyanza: Raila's father and 
independence activist Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was from Siaya 
and held the Bondo parliamentary seat which brother Oburu 
Odinga now occupies.  As a result, Raila has a rock star's 
ability to draw a crowd, and his arrival at the schools was 
met with cheers and song, overpowering the music from the 
loudspeaker truck that preceded him.  Speaking before the 
audience of nearly 1,000 students, teachers, and community 
members, Odinga, and his LDP colleague MP Sammy Weya, 
announced that it would be impossible for them to pass up an 
opportunity to make a political statement.  They proceeded to 
call for the resignation of President Kibaki, Vice President 
Moody Awori, and others recently implicated in massive 
corruption scandals. 
 
LEGUME COMMERCIALIZATION 
------------------------ 
 
¶3.  In support of improving food security in Kenya's western 
region, the Ambassador participated in the launch of a 
program to help farmers move into legumes production, growing 
in particular groundnuts, chickpeas, and pigeonpeas.  The 
initiative, supported by USDA and implemented by NGO 
Technoserve, aims to help develop a business approach to 
farming.  The launch took place at a press conference in the 
provincial capital Kisumu, attended by local MPs, the Nyanza 
and Western Provincial Commissioners, other donors, and media 
members.  The Ambassador stated that to strengthen the 
country against the effects of recurrent drought, the 
government needs strong political will and commitment to 
establish prevention and response mechanisms. 
 
¶4.  In Nyanza, the challenge to succeed is not limited to 
farmers.  Prominent local businessmen emphasized to the 
Ambassador the enduring obstacles they face from dilapidated 
infrastructure, erratic and expensive energy supplies, and 
the rising cost of doing business.  Frustrated, they echoed 
the Province's sense of marginalization and isolation, both 
physical and political, from the resources of a government 
that includes almost no Luos. 
BELLAMY