By John Wesley
For nearly two decades, Kisumu East has lived under the leadership of Hon. Shakeel Shabbir, fondly nicknamed Wuon Mogo- the “owner of maize flour.” In times of political turbulence or campaign fever, maize flour is handed out as a gesture of goodwill, a quick fix for hunger. But flour cannot build roads. Flour cannot equip hospitals. Flour cannot lift a constituency out of poverty. And after all these years, Kisumu East has been left with little more than symbolic handouts and unfulfilled promises.
Since 2007, residents have trusted him with the mandate to steer development, but what legacy do we see? The reality on the ground tells a story of betrayal. Roads are broken and neglected, turning daily movement into suffering. Social services offices; where people go to seek help and essential services- are still housed in mabati structures, an insult to a community that deserves dignity and efficiency.
Healthcare is no better. Facilities in Kisumu East lack even the most basic equipment. Expectant mothers are turned away, patients are left untreated, and families are forced into catastrophic health expenses because the local system has failed them. For a constituency so close to Lake Victoria, it is a paradox that clean water remains a privilege for a few, while the majority continue to fetch unsafe water from streams and broken pipes.
The Auditor General’s reports consistently raise alarms over misuse and mismanagement of public funds in Kisumu East, echoing the cries of the people who see projects abandoned, stalled, or completed only on paper. We were told CDF (the Constituency Development Fund) was our grassroots lifeline. Kisumu East’s allocation-roughly KSh 179 million for 2024/25 was meant for health, education, and vital infrastructure. Yet a 2024 audit revealed a nation-wide crisis of stalled and abandoned projects; some totaling millions of shillings- evidence of poor planning, procurement breaches, and outright mismanagement..
In Kisumu East specifically, the Auditor General flagged KSh 7.5 million unutilized, KSh 2.8 million spent on unapproved projects, and KSh 2.2 million drained to build two classrooms at Tido Primary School. Projects that now gather dust, disconnected from community benefit.
Year after year, money meant to transform the constituency is either wasted, misallocated, or reduced to handouts of unga. This is not governance; it is survival politics.
Behind every unbuilt hospital stands a sick child forced to travel miles for treatment. Behind every mabati government office is a widow waiting in line for hours without service. Behind every bad road is a farmer watching produce rot before it ever reaches the market. The cost of this failed governance is not abstract, it is measured in lives diminished, opportunities lost, and dignity stripped away.
Kisumu East is crying out for revival, for a new awakening. The people are not beggars. They are taxpayers, citizens, and human beings who deserve proper service delivery, accountability, and leadership that transforms. Flour may fill stomachs for a day, but it cannot fill the void of decades of underdevelopment.
It is time to move beyond handouts and demand real governance. Time to demand hospitals that heal, offices that serve, roads that connect, and water that sustains. The flour ends at mealtime. But development must outlast elections. Kisumu East should thrive. It deserves honest leadership, functioning systems, and the return of human dignity.
We deserve justice, dignity, and true transformation.
Kisumu County
