Homa Bay Roads Become Political Battleground After Linda Mwananchi Tour

The chaotic Linda Mwananchi tour of Homa Bay County on Sunday has opened a fresh debate over the state of infrastructure in a region where political leaders have for years traded blame over development.

The opposition-linked Linda Mwananchi team, led by figures including Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, Siaya Governor James Orengo and Embakasi East MP Babu Owino, had notified police ahead of the August 16 tour and called for heightened security.

But the political tour was overshadowed by disruption and controversy, with claims that some roads leading to planned venues were blocked, forcing the caravan to use alternative routes.

As the team streamed its journey online, images of vehicles navigating dusty, rocky and rough roads quickly circulated on social media. The scenes triggered a wider conversation about the quality of roads in Homa Bay and whether successive governments and local leaders have done enough to improve infrastructure.

The debate soon became political.

Supporters of President William Ruto's administration argued that the Linda Mwananchi team deliberately highlighted poorly maintained roads while overlooking infrastructure projects completed or undertaken under the current administration.

Critics, however, said the images exposed a deeper problem: that many residents in parts of Homa Bay continue to rely on poorly maintained roads despite decades of political representation and the introduction of devolution under the 2010 Constitution.

Suba South at the centre of the debate

One of the areas whose roads came under scrutiny was Suba South, represented by MP Caroli Omondi, a prominent member of the Linda Mwananchi movement. Omondi has been actively involved in the movement's nationwide mobilisation efforts.

Omondi succeeded John Mbadi as Suba South MP after the 2022 General Election. Mbadi had represented the wider Gwassi area and later Suba South for many years before moving into national politics.

Mbadi, now Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury, responded to the criticism by accusing the Linda Mwananchi team of selectively showcasing poorly maintained feeder roads while ignoring infrastructure projects completed under the Kenya Kwanza administration.

“Every major highway has a dusty feeder road,” Mbadi said, arguing that the caravan had chosen what to magnify.

He also pointed to the Kigwa-Magunga stretch along the Sindo-Magunga-Sori road, which he said had benefited from infrastructure improvements under President Ruto's administration.

Mbadi further argued that efforts to address historical infrastructure inequalities in the region were continuing, including through plans surrounding the Lake Victoria Ring Road and associated spur roads.

His defence, however, immediately drew criticism from Kenyans who questioned the record of successive leaders who have represented the area.

The central question was straightforward: if the roads have remained in poor condition for years, who should take responsibility?

The accountability question

The controversy has exposed the difficult politics of development in constituencies where responsibility for infrastructure is spread across different levels and institutions of government.

While national government agencies are responsible for major highways and other national infrastructure, constituency-level development also involves the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF), alongside county government responsibilities for devolved roads.

This creates a complicated accountability chain but residents are ultimately less interested in which government department is responsible than in whether roads are passable.

The debate has therefore turned into a political contest over who deserves credit for development and who should answer for what remains unfinished.

Critics of Mbadi's position have pointed to his long tenure as an elected representative and questioned why some roads remained in poor condition during his years in Parliament.

Supporters of the former MP, meanwhile, argue that large infrastructure projects require national funding and cannot reasonably be attributed to an individual legislator.

Millie Odhiambo rejects the “feeder roads” argument

Suba North MP Millie Odhiambo has offered perhaps the strongest rebuttal to the argument that the roads captured during the tour were merely feeder roads.

Odhiambo said many roads in Suba South and Suba North remain in poor condition and cautioned leaders against using terminology that could obscure the scale of the infrastructure problem.

“Most of our roads are bad in Suba South and North,” she said, arguing that describing the roads as feeder roads could prevent them from receiving the priority they deserve.

Her comments have added weight to the argument that the controversy is not simply about a political caravan choosing particular routes, but about the broader condition of road infrastructure across parts of Homa Bay.

The issue is not entirely new. Questions about upgrading roads around Sindo, Magunga and neighbouring areas have featured in government discussions for years. Parliamentary records from 2014, for example, show that the Mbita-Sindo-Magunga road had already been earmarked for upgrading to bitumen standards, illustrating the longevity of the infrastructure challenge.

Beyond the politics

The Homa Bay road controversy has exposed a familiar Kenyan political dilemma: development projects often become weapons in political battles rather than benchmarks against which leaders are objectively judged.

For the Kenya Kwanza administration, the images provide an opportunity to highlight infrastructure projects delivered under its watch.

For Linda Mwananchi and other opposition actors, the same images offer evidence that large parts of the country remain underserved despite years of government promises.

But for residents of Suba South, Suba North and other parts of Homa Bay, the political argument may matter less than the condition of the roads they use every day.

The question now facing national and local leaders is not simply who is responsible for the roads seen during Sunday's tour.

It is whether the long-running infrastructure deficit in Homa Bay can finally be addressed without being reduced to another cycle of political blame.

With the 2027 General Election approaching, the condition of roads in Homa Bay may increasingly become more than an infrastructure issue. It could become a powerful measure of how voters judge the performance and promises of their leaders.