It rained almost every day in Migori. Not particularly the best weather for outside broadcasting. But then again, this is one of the pitfalls of doing a news bulletin right under the tent of the sky. The County Edition would not have that irreplaceable crisp feel of being out on location, were we to do our bulletins from a safe, rain free building.
Everywhere we have gone over the past 16 weeks, I’ve had to get used to an almost irrepressible feeling that, when I learnt about my country in school, I wasn’t told the entire story.
The entire County Edition Team’s eyes have indeed been opened afresh with regard to what Kenya actually looks like, and the huge potential to transform it for the better.
The plentiful rain in Migori means that a wide variation of crops will not just grow there, but thrive. In fact, (if my layman eyes didn”t deceive me), Migori’s land, if properly farmed, could very well be the figurative kitchen from where Nyanza region gets its food.
And that’s not all. Beneath the fertile surface that I speak of, Migori’s got Gold. There actually was a serious attempt to mine this gold in large quantities, to the extent that a hydroelectric power station was built, and opened in 1957 to provide power to the Macalder mines.
The station’s natural energy source was the Gogo Falls, from which it gets its name, and the power of these falls is manifest in the ear splitting roar as they cascade through Uriri and Nyatike, before reaching the Lake Victoria.
Then there’s Thim Lich Ohinga, a 500-year-old archaeological mystery, believed to have been the home of some of the earliest settlers in the region. Their mastery, when it comes to constructing stone structures, is simply fascinating.
The word ‘potential’ has consequently started to be a bit of an irritant to me. There is not a single county that we have visited that does not have the potential either from natural endowment or through the efforts of its residents to be great.
It is hugely frustrating for me that not much seems to be getting done to fully exploit this potential. That frustration is aggravated further by the fact that this ominous neglect has been going on for a considerable time.
I am aware my argument might pass as superficial. I haven’t made any effort to explain how exactly this potential can or should be harnessed or given sufficient proof nothing is being done.
But that perhaps is a reflection of how many people, who live next to these goldmines are almost always unable to explain the reasons why this potential remains unexploited.
In many case though, the people themselves have been held back in one way or another from reaping the low hanging fruit from around them.
I’ve since learned how to remedy this insipid frustration rather easily. I resign myself to being awed by just how beautiful our country is. That’s usually more than enough to keep my spirits up.