Leaders and scholars from the Alego-Usonga constituency now want the Siaya County government to surrender the entire Siaya Agricultural Training Centre land to the proposed President Barack Obama University College.
Led by area Member of Parliament Samuel Atandi and university don Prof. Paul Wao Achola, the leaders expressed fears that failure to do so would negate the efforts that the residents made to have a fully fledged university in Siaya town.
Speaking separately, the leaders expressed concern that the county government was planning to hive off 15 acres from the 56-acre land for the construction of a new county headquarters.
Speaking at Malomba Secondary School in West Alego, Atandi said the local residents were opposed to the hiving off of any portion of the land and urged Governor James Orengo to listen to the public.
Atandi further challenged the county government to make public a lease agreement with Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, which was nurturing the nascent President Barrack Obama University College.
Scholars, among them Owino Tamre and Michael Mwalo, said their concerns must not be politicised, adding that their main interest was to articulate the needs of the citizens of Siaya County.
Tamre said any attempt to hive off part of the land would go against the Commission for University Education’s requirement that university land must be at least 50 acres.
“If it is reduced to below 50 acres, the establishment will automatically be annulled,” said Tamre, adding that a document has emerged from the county government proposing subdivision of the land where the university college has been allocated 25 acres and construction of the county headquarters 15 acres, leaving 10 acres to the Agricultural Training Centre.
Tamre questioned the interest by the county government on the ATC land, given that the national committee on transfer of assets that managed transition at the advent of devolution handed over five acres of land for construction of the county headquarters at Awelo junction, less than a kilometre from the land in contention.
By Philip Onyango
