The political landscape in Migori County is growing increasingly active as Suna West lawmaker Peter Francis Masara dropped a firm reminder to local residents regarding his intentions to contest the county’s top job in the next general elections.

Speaking during the launch of a newly constructed administration block at Kopanga Primary School, Masara pulled no punches, leveraging the platform to remind his constituents of his upcoming gubernatorial bid while launching a scathing attack on the current Migori County administration, which he accused of completely failing its citizens.

 “The current administration has failed Migori County residents across every vital sector,” the lawmaker thundered.

“Look at our health facilities, look at our roads, look at our schools, and look at our markets. The people deserve a leadership that works, and that is why I am reminding you of my mandate to lead this county as your next governor.”

In his audit of the current county leadership, Masara highlighted the stark deterioration of public amenities, drawing a heavy contrast with his own aggressive development goals for Suna West. 

He took issue with the trade sector, pointing out the absolute filthiness and neglect of local markets due to a complete failure in basic services like garbage collection.

He further reminded residents that funding multi billion shilling road networks requires a functional tax system, but argued that citizens can only be expected to pay taxes happily if they see those funds translating directly into clean markets, reliable clinics, and passable roads.

Incompetent administration

The political focus turned sharply onto the executive leadership of the Migori County government, who faced a scathing indictment over systemic corruption and the alleged siphoning of public funds meant for the region’s most marginalized communities. 

The lawmaker launched a direct offensive against the county administration, taking a sharp swipe at entrenched political elites within its ranks who were accused of abusing their status to embezzle local resources, even compromising the procurement of basic hospital pharmaceuticals.

“How does someone calling himself ‘Nyakwar Jamoko’ stoop so low as to steal money meant for a poor man’s Panadol?” Masara demanded, launching a fierce attack on the county’s handling of healthcare facilities that drew roaring applause from the frustrated crowd.

To counter the county’s shortcomings in healthcare, Masara revealed that his office has bypassed slow bureaucracy to secure a landmark partnership with the Safaricom M-Pesa Foundation. 

The multi-million shilling collaboration will construct a modern, state of the art hospital block featuring a specialized Mother and Child unit, an ultra-modern maternity wing, and a fully equipped surgical theater.

This blatant mismanagement by the county executive has sparked a wider push for total transparency across Suna West. To combat the entrenched political networks within the Migori County administration,the MP urged the community to register in masses for national IDs and voter cards ahead of the 2027 polls. 

“This registration drive is being framed not just as a civic duty, but as a direct democratic weapon to dismantle the current county leadership and protect hard earned local developments from further exploitation”.He argued 

Educational marginalization

Turning his attention to education, the lawmaker launched a twin assault on both institutional bias and local parental neglect. Masara took a hard line against the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), alleging an unfair distribution where urban schools are comfortably over staffed while hardship and rural areas are left with skeletal teaching staff.

   “There is no way we will give schools within the town area more teachers than teachers who are in the hardship areas,” the law maker declared firmly. “Anybody who is going to be employed now moving forward, there is no posting to town and we are not going to accept.”

“The Teachers Service Commission should take note of teachers looking for transfers from hardship areas three months after their employment” He noted.

He further urged families from Wasimbete and Mukuro to enroll high school graduates into local teacher training colleges. This initiative aims to ensure that future academic generations are taught by professionals born and raised within their own zones.

The MP also issued a stern wake up call to local parents, telling them to stop being “too busy” for their households. He emphasized that achieving high education standards requires active parental guidance and discipline at home, rather than shifting the entire burden onto under-resourced schools.

He further demanded for immediate affirmative action in national teacher and police recruitment to correct three decades of regional imbalances. He challenged Suna West youths to enroll in large numbers in Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) so the constituency can sustainably produce its own educators to fill these gaps.

Defending his management of public funds, Masara explained that his office is steering away from the traditional practice of breaking down the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) into microscopic, unnoticeable tranches. 

Instead, the strategy has shifted toward consolidating massive sums such as single 22 million shilling allocations to execute singular high impact projects.

This consolidated funding model is what drove the construction of the Kopanga Primary administration block and will continue to be used to install heavy duty box culverts, clear local drainage systems, and connect rural areas to the main electricity grid.

Public protest

Addressing broader regional issues, Masara outlined a deliberate, tactical shift in how the community will approach national politics and civic advocacy moving forward. 

He noted that while the Luo community has a celebrated, thirty year history of taking to the streets to fight for democracy, the focus must now firmly pivot toward tracking tangible developmental results.

Masara asserted that roadblock demonstrations should only be used as a last resort if explicit development pacts made to the region by the national government are systematically ignored.

 “We successfully demonstrated for decades to secure our seat at the table. Now that we are there, we must focus on economic and infrastructural transformation,” he noted,  

With Masara keeping his gubernatorial ambitions at the forefront of the public conversation, local political analysts note that his dual focus on his Suna West development record and his direct critique of the county executive will continue to heavily influence the dialogue leading into the next electoral cycle