Ruto, Oburu open Siaya Community Digital Hub in Bondo
I was born in Bondo some century ago, but I am going to make it less because only my mother knows my birthday and she is not around to whisper that to anybody.
And even my mother about my birthday, she used to guess it by how the weather was when I was born. I guess we were born in open air space. How grand. And our mothers managed to hang on to us and give us life.
My mother’s church had a paper with my name and a birthday for us to give to the ID office when I needed a national ID. But I grew up in Bondo with my six sisters. Our mother was the disciplinarian at home for all of us. My mother’s law was going to school and keeping the house clean. There were so many of us there so messing it wasn’t going to work.
My father was more generous with us in terms of discipline. When we were in trouble our father would make us put cow dung under his mangoe trees as the discipline work and that guy had those mangoe trees everywhere in our home and now it is a forest of gigantic mangoe trees and the young ones love them and climb to the top before they come down to eat the fruits they harvest from up there.
As for going to school that was the most important thing to our mother apart from her Bible which she kept with her all the time. You mess with school my mother was going to whip your ass and then give you other work to do like go fetch water from Miruka pond next to our home as part of the punishment.
For me fetching water from Miruka was impossible. My sisters told our mum that I have no idea how to carry anything on my head and the water tin will just be falling down all over me. My mum told them that is my problem and they figured it out for me.
So Bondo Town is my blood and it is an exploding town for those who know what is going in there. In fact, I can proudly tell every Kenyan that Bondo Town right now is one of the best places to invest in anything from food production and processing, bakeries, building furniture for schools and private use as well as building first class restaurants and hotels. All that is happening as we speak.
To start with here is ACK Synod Plaza in Bondo town built by the ACK church which has owned the plot since Bondo became a small town way back. That church block is right at the heart of Bondo town. Down next to it is the Bondo Police Station and on the other side are offices and living places for administrative authorities in Bondo.
Today the ACK plaza is at the heart of an emerging Bondo town just booming in every sector of the economy and local business people are growing in all directions.
It was very encouraging to see President Ruto and ODM leader Dr. Oburu Oginga opening the Digital Hub Centre in Bondo town for the residents. This is a town where majority of the population are young people and they have to navigate their future by themselves and they need the resources and facilities to do so which is the job of their government to help them.
President William Ruto on Sunday presided over the official opening of the Siaya Community Digital Hub in Bondo Town, Siaya county.
The President was accompanied by the Orange Democratic Movement party leader Oburu Oginga during the launch of the facility.
The new digital hub is expected to enhance access to technology and digital services for residents of Siaya and surrounding areas.
Community digital hubs are part of efforts aimed at expanding digital connectivity and creating opportunities for learning, innovation and access to online services.
Leaders present at the event said such initiatives are designed to bridge the digital divide by providing young people and entrepreneurs with access to internet services, computers and digital skills.
The launch at Bondo Town marks another step in the government’s push to expand digital infrastructure and support technology-driven development in counties across the country.
Bondo has a young and energetic population growing with their town. It doesn’t get better than that to build community centres able to cater for the needs of the population of young Kenyans.
JOOUST is built on the northern side of the Kisumu Usenge highway which goes right through Bondo town and they had some open land going towards Nyamira Girls High School and Maranda Boys High School. People like me and my family live in the southern part of the highway as it enters Bondo town.
The university has built everything from laboratories and residences for students everywhere there and it is a city by itself in Bondo town.
Bondo town also has its prestigious medical college towards the Bar Kowino part of the town and you get a sense this is town for young people achieving their ambitions and that is very good for them and for the country.
Overall Bondo town is a neat complex place where things are available like in any modern urban market in Kenya and for some of us it is home. Bondo people like me love their town and its prospects. Everybody is going to be there as Bondo grows.
Believe it or not, this our lovely Bondo City and it is growing. Everybody is welcome to Bondo.
As local folks with those on the ground this is what we are working on for Bondo and Siaya County.
Read: The Bondo Rural Strategic Devt Agency
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
