By Joshua Nyamori 
National partnership, shared responsibility, disciplined progress – Kisumu must rise to meet the moment.
There comes a season in the life of a people when history pauses, looks into their eyes, and asks a single question: Will you continue to live by grievance – or will you rise into strategy, discipline, and national purpose?
For six decades, Kisumu has carried a reputation shaped not by its true genius, but by the storms of politics and the weight of memory. Yet beneath that turbulence lives a people of intellect, endurance, imagination, and enterprise – a people whose spirit has never been caged, only misunderstood.
Today, under the leadership of HE. the President of Kenya William Samoei Ruto , the wind is shifting. For the first time in a generation, national policy is turning its face toward the lake – toward logistics, blue-economy investment, regional trade connectivity, and real sector transformation. The revival of the port, the extension of rail, the expansion of road corridors, and strategic state investment will not simply projects – they are a philosophy of inclusion, equity, and national re-balancing.
And for this, Mr. President, we acknowledge you. Not as an outsider looking in, but as a leader who has dared to say: Kisumu is not a protest space – Kisumu is a growth frontier.
But infrastructure alone does not build destiny. Steel and concrete are only as powerful as the mindset that animates them. If we are to become a true logistics hub for the DRC, South Sudan, and the Great Lakes region; if our port vessels are to replace endless convoys of trucks; if our youth are to move from survival labour to skilled opportunity – then Kisumu must undergo a deeper transformation:
From emotional politics to strategic citizenship.
From cyclical grievance to disciplined progress.
From applause for rhetoric to respect for competence, service, and delivery.
The future will not reward noise. It will reward organisation. It will reward communities that prepare their people, structure their economy, align with national investment, and build institutions capable of absorbing growth.
That is the Kisumu I speak to – the Kisumu that must now rise.
We must become a county that mirrors the President’s development doctrine: work ethic, order, productivity, social discipline, and economic responsibility. Our destiny will not be written by theatrics, manufactured emotion, or loyalty contests of the past. It will be written by those who can see beyond the horizon – who can translate opportunity into structure, and structure into prosperity.
We must ask ourselves:
If the nation is opening doors to us – are we prepared to walk through them?
If we demand first-world infrastructure – do we embrace a first-world mindset?
If opportunity arrives – will we choose development over spectacle?
My call is not to anger, nor rivalry, nor political theatrics. My call is to purpose.
To the professionals, business community, youth innovators, fishermen, traders, scholars, faith leaders, workers, and households across our city and hinterland of Kisumu County – this is our season to mature, organise, and lead. Let us match national investment with local discipline. Let us build a Kisumu that stands not as a symbol of resistance, but as a model of resilience, intelligence, and national partnership.
Because when the Lake rises – Kenya rises with it.
And today, I speak not as a politician seeking applause, but as a son of this soil, carrying a simple conviction:
The time has come for Kisumu to stop shouting at history –
and begin shaping it.
Disembe 
Nyanza Wire