President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has drummed his support to former Prime Minister of Kenya Raila Odinga, who is aiming for the chairmanship of the African Union but urged the leaders of East Africa to play a bigger role and ease their work.
This was at the closure of the fourth edition of the Piny Luo Festival in Siaya County, Kenya on Thursday, January 2, 2025.
“We are supporting the candidature of Raila Odinga for African Union chairmanship, but the real work will be us in charge of these governments and the people of East Africa,” H.E. Museveni said.
On his part, Kenyan President William Ruto said the Piny Luo celebration confirms that their quest as East Africa to put forward the candidature of Rt Hon. Raila Odinga is the correct thing to do as a candidate, not for Kenya but for East Africa to champion the unity and progress and the success of Africa as a continent.
In honour of the event and in the presence of President Museveni, H.E. Ruto announced the official opening of the Lamogi campus of Nyang’oma Technical Training College which is to immediately admit students beginning this January.
“We have built that institution at a cost of Ksh 400 million. My instructions are that a plaque be put there to show that this institution was opened in the presence of Mzee Yoweri Kaguta Museveni so that we also use it as a landmark for the celebration of East Africa,” President Ruto stated.
Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga said that East Africans have been held hostage to the borders imposed by colonial times, and their view is that these borders should stop being impediments to the prosperity of East Africa and Africa. He supported President Museveni and President Ruto that prosperity can be achieved through, among others, promoting trade first among the Africans, which is only 15%, yet that of the Europeans is at 70% and that of Asia at 60%.
“Africa trades more with others than itself. We’re saying let us open our borders so that people can move freely,” Rt. Hon. Odinga said.
The Governor of Siaya County, James Orengo, expressed gratitude to President Ruto for making it possible for President Museveni to join the closure of the Piny Luo festival and urged the two Presidents to begin with the federation of Kenya and Uganda.
“If it is the Federation of the willing, possibly one of the things that can come out of this Piny Luo festival, you can pronounce today that beginning from now on, any Kenyan can walk across to Uganda and any Ugandan can walk across to Kenya. It would be the beginning of the journey of the East African federation, and we want to see it in our lifetime,” Governor Orengo said.
The three-day event that kicked off on December 31st, 2024, under the theme “Celebrating the Roots of Our Culture and Heritage”, focused on promoting unity, peace, and reconciliation among various Luo communities across the region.
The cultural pilgrimage attracted different groups of Luo luminaries across Africa, such as Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, the Central African Republic, and other nations, led by their respective “Kers” (cultural leaders). The Ugandan groups included the Alur, Acholi, Padhola, and Jo Nam, while others included the Alur of the DRC.
The First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of East African Community Affairs, Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga, also attended the event.
Luos are said to have settled in Got Ramogi as they migrated from Sudan. The hill has occupied a special place in the history of the Luo and is considered the spot where the Luo first settled during their migration before occupying various parts of what is present-day Luo Nyanza.
