The late Mzee Marcus Ogonda, a former senior police officer in Thika, remains a quiet but powerful symbol of what could have been in Nyanza’s agricultural story. In my village of Ukwala, he introduced seedless oranges and coffee, proving through lived experience that coffee can thrive in Ugenya. His work challenged the long-held myth that Nyanza is somehow unsuitable for high-value crops. Yet, despite such evidence, the region has historically been left out of Kenya’s most lucrative agricultural value chains.
That is why recent remarks by Rigathi Gachagua suggesting that William Ruto should not speak about coffee in Nyanza—but instead focus on coffee in Central Kenya and “fish in Nyanza”—are not only misplaced, they risk entrenching a dangerous and outdated logic of regional economic segregation. Development in a modern nation cannot be confined to ethnic or geographic stereotypes.
History is instructive here. During the colonial period, African farmers in regions like Nyanza were systematically restricted from growing lucrative crops such as coffee, while Central Kenya and parts of the Rift Valley were prioritized for settler agriculture. Independence did not fully dismantle these structures. Instead, post-colonial policy often reinforced existing inequalities, leaving regions like Nyanza to rely on cotton and sugar—both of which later collapsed under the weight of mismanagement and policy neglect.
But Kenya has also demonstrated, at critical moments, that economic opportunity need not be regionally confined. During the presidency of Mwai Kibaki, the government—through initiatives associated with then Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta—rolled out an economic stimulus programme that introduced fish farming in Central Kenya and other non-lake regions. Fish ponds were constructed far from Lake Victoria, expanding aquaculture beyond its traditional geography. Notably, leaders and communities from Nyanza did not protest that fish was “their” economic preserve. They understood that national development is about expanding opportunity, not guarding it.
Ironically, it was also during this period that Kenya opened its market to imported fish, including from China, undercutting fishermen from the lake region who had long depended on the sector. Again, Nyanza bore the economic shock without framing it as a territorial dispute over who should produce or consume fish. This history underscores a fundamental truth: Kenya’s economy grows when opportunities are shared, not when they are fenced off.
It is therefore both timely and commendable that President William Ruto has expressed interest in expanding coffee farming into regions like Nyanza. This is not a political gesture—it is an economic correction. It acknowledges that regions historically excluded from high-value crops deserve inclusion in modern value chains. Coffee in Nyanza should not be seen as an encroachment on Central Kenya’s legacy, but as an expansion of Kenya’s overall production capacity.
The same principle applies to infrastructure. Critics who argue that extending the Standard Gauge Railway to Kisumu and Malaba is economically unjustified overlook the catalytic role infrastructure plays in unlocking regional potential. Rail connectivity is not merely about current volumes; it is about future growth. Linking western Kenya more efficiently to regional and international markets will stimulate trade, reduce transport costs, and attract investment. Economic logic must be forward-looking, not narrowly reactive.
To insist that Nyanza should remain confined to fish while other regions diversify freely is to repeat the very patterns of exclusion that have historically held the country back. Kenya cannot afford to organize its economy along colonial-era assumptions or post-independence political silos. Every region must be given the tools, infrastructure, and policy support to compete and thrive across multiple sectors.
The story of Nyanza is not one of inability, but of denied opportunity. From the fall of Kisumu Cotton Mills to the struggles of the sugar industry in Muhoroni and Chemelil, the region has seen the consequences of narrow economic pathways and fragile policy support. Diversification—into coffee, horticulture, aquaculture, and agro-processing—is not a luxury; it is a necessity.
Mzee Marcus Ogonda understood this decades ago when he planted coffee in Ukwala. He did not see agriculture as a regional entitlement, but as a field of possibility. That is the spirit Kenya must embrace today.
As a nation, we must reject the idea that development belongs to certain regions and not others. Instead, we should support a leadership vision that seeks to unlock the full productive capacity of every corner of the country. On this, President William Ruto deserves recognition for broadening the conversation around coffee and inclusive growth.
Kenya will not move forward by telling some regions what they cannot grow. It will move forward by ensuring that every region can grow what it is capable of.
Daniel Juma Omondi is the Chairman of Nyanza Forum (nyanzaforum.org).
