Governor Jack Ranguma losing 2017 elections is less difficult to understand than how he ‘won’ the first term. In 2013, he was pushed to the party's nomination as a result of organized violence.  His election was a quirk, rather than something earned.  Any ODM member who gained the nomination was likely ensured the governorship.  Devolution was also a new phenomenon in the country however, the people have now seen how devolution has transformed other Counties in Kenya and will not like to be left behind. (Read Kenya and Singapore comparison stories)

Nothing the governor promised has been accomplished. A leader who has reneged on his own promises cannot be trusted with another term. Interestingly, much of what he does have added to the county's problems. What people have seen is nothing like what they were promised or imagined. What was a tabula rasa upon which to imagine a Ranguma government now is a full-blown portrait filled with failure, warts, and scars.

Kisumu was declared a millennium town by the United Nations. As such, it was to be a UN’s reform model city and the lessons learned and the achievements would be replicated in other towns in Africa. As a Millennium city Kisumu was expected to attain the mid-term development goals as set in the MDGs. To achieve that, the city was to eradicate poverty and extreme hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empowerment, reduce child mortality, and improve maternal health, combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases by 2015. Today the town is still faced with a myriad of problems: poverty, poor infrastructure, unemployment, HIV/Aids, insufficient transport structures, poor planning, corruption, food insecurity, indiscriminate disposal of waste, all which leads to environmental degradation. With growth rate of a paltry 2.8% annually, major industries have folded in the last 15 years.

The governor has only given lip service to the challenges he promised to address once elected. They included poverty, healthcare, insecurity, perennial flooding, corruption and mismanagement of public funds, reviving collapsed industries, garbage collection and waste management etc.

Poverty

The County still experiences one of the highest incidents of food insecurity in the country with above 40% of her population sleeping hungry. Most of the food consumed in Kisumu is imported from neighboring Counties though the county has the potential for small and medium scale food production. About 40% of the urban population lives within the absolute poverty bracket.
The county is characterized by poor governance, weak administration, nepotism, corruption and is heavily indebted with insufficient financial resources. The County is reeling under huge debts in excess of 2 billion. We must alleviate extreme poverty so that the poorest can access basic needs and services for survival like food, safe drinking water, sanitation, shelter and education.

Early Childhood & Primary School Education

Educational standards and performance have deteriorated significantly in Kisumu County. The county has failed and the county government must invest more in the education sector to reduce the number of students drop outs before completing at least secondary school studies. Learning in over ten schools in Kisumu County is always affected during heavy rains which pound the areas leaving several areas flooded every rainy season. Kisumu government is yet to account for the over 70 million shillings he allocated for El Nino rains and other disasters.

Improve Maternal Health

Maternal health care continues to be one of the greatest challenges facing the County. Kisumu has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the country, with the burden falling disproportionately on the poorest women and children. Many women still give birth at home without skilled care. Access to and uses of services depend on where women live and their social or economic status, with lack of transport and financial constraints preventing many women from accessing care. Kisumu County has one of the highest infant death rates in Kenya which stands at over 130 per 1,000 births annually. This means that more health intervention strategies would have to be put in place to reverse the trend and avoid deaths of mothers and their children. The county government has failed in building capacity of county health workers and improving community and health facility interactions by strengthening referral mechanisms through use of modern technology.

The Kisumu County government was recently at loggerheads with the people for diverting funds meant for health sector to other social avenues. Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (the biggest in Kisumu) and other lower level hospitals are still underfunded and under equipped.

Women Empowerment Gender Equality

Traditional ideas about the roles of girls and women restrict their contributions to the society. These ideas hold women back from contributing to important development goals; especially in the areas of economic growth, nutrition and food security. Women account for one-half of the potential human capital in any economy. According to the World Bank, countries with greater gender equality are more prosperous and competitive.  Evidence shows that resources in the hands of women boost household spending in areas that benefit children. Empowering women and girls is not only the right thing to do: it’s also smart economics and vital to ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity. The county government is yet to write even a paragraph on how it is empowering the women and girls.

Insecurity

Insecurity usually shakes investors' confidence, which prompt them to shelve their fresh investment and business expansion plans.  An economy characterized by violence and crime is not good for investment.

The county government has failed to collaborate with the national government towards keeping Kisumu safe and secure. It has failed to equip and modernize the county security forces, through increase motorization to enhance the ability to tackle crime in a more efficient and focused manner. It has failed to put in place firm security measures to contain criminal activities including police posts in volatile areas.

We have seen other counties such as Machakos, Mombasa, Nairobi purchase good security patrol cars because they believe that such a crucial role cannot be left to the national government alone. In Kisumu not even a single probox has been purchased to beef up the security surveillance.

The County government has also failed to fund projects aimed at countering security threats resulting from poverty and joblessness in Kisumu.
Ranguma's foreign investment policy has left Kisumu, if anything, weaker and less attractive to investors. Kisumu has the biggest dumpsite in Kenya after Dandora.

Ranguma, who four years ago promised such a transformative leadership, has plainly failed. He has failed to show that he was serious about taking on corruption or enacting the promised reforms. The economy and living standards tanked.

Disillusioned and angry, Kisumu people now await the arrival of a new government that will win back their trust and aspirations and restore the confidence of the investors. This is Kisumu’s greatest challenge, and her future strength hangs on making the rational choices she dodged in the previous elections