Who is Mr. Opwonya Nokrach?
Opwonya Nokrach is a Luo man of the Jo Koch from the Punok clan in Pinyluo Acoli and a father.
What is your Education background?
I am an Aeronautical Engineer by training, M.Sc. Aero from the Royal Technical Institute KTH in Stockholm Sweden.
What inspires you to get through each day?
As a diaspora Luo what inspires me to get through the day is comparing my knowledge of Pinyluo to the knowledge I have on other societies, analyzing and coming up with innovative solutions to the problems of Pinyluo.
What are your guiding principles?
My guiding principle which I try to transfer to all my endeavors is deliberate, methodical and rational action.
What prompted you to create the LNC, when was it and how would you define it?
I created the LNC more than two years ago after realizing that Joluo wherever they are face the same set of problems and the best way to overcome the problems of Joluo is through a concerted effort by Joluo. That is to say Joluo must act together across colonial borders to solve the problems that they face separately in the colonially created states.
The LNC is a Luo Integrationist movement. That is to say we seek to reconnect Joluo to each other. We seek to repair the break in communication between Luo groups that was occasioned by the stretching that took place during the Luo migration as our people migrated southwards along the River Nile down to the shores of Lake Victoria and in the last few decades all the way into Europe and the America(s). The Luo nation through this migration has become a body without a central nervous system. It is the intention of the LNC to recreate this central nervous system such that the pain of a Luo in Migori is felt by another Luo in Malakal and the Joy of a Luo in Gambella is felt by another Luo in Mahagi.
What are the key specific areas of concern for LNC?
The key and specific areas of concern for LNC are noted as its aims. The LNC aims to
- Emphasize Luo heritage and culture
- Build Luo networks in all fields of human endeavor
- De-emphasize and delegitimize colonially and other artificially created divisions of Joluo
The achievement of the above three aims of the LNC would go a long way in improving the Luo condition in the states under which we find ourselves.
How can you describe the state of the Luo nation in African Countries?
The state of the Luo nation is very bad today.
According to you what poses threat to Luo integration and survival in Africa?
The biggest threat to the Luo nation is that the Luo nation is a nation with no institution to protect its interests, or more correctly no institution with teeth to protect its interests. This means Luo national interests which are as natural as the interests of any other nation on earth i.e territorial integrity, culture in general including language are all under serious threat. We Joluo are losing our land at an alarming rate all over Pinyluo and our ability to communicate with each other too through “shengization” and “gandization” of our language such that we are a couple of generations away from being without a coherent language and a pacho where the Language spoken is unequivocally dholuo/lebluo. These problems however, grave as they are, have not yet reached a stage where they are irreversible. All we need is a few good Luo women and men to take responsibility and commit to deliberate, methodical and rational measures to reverse the sorry trend.
Do you think there is a deliberate plan to reduce the Luo population?
I have not seen any evidence of a deliberate concerted effort yet by our neighbors to reduce our numbers, this doesn’t mean there are no disjointed efforts from them that lead to the same effect of depopulating Pinyluo.
Whose interest does a defaced, demoralized and defeated Luo Serve?
A defeated and demoralized Luo nation serves the interests of our neighbors who can then expand their territories by acquiring Pinyluo either through “willing buyer willing seller” acre by acre or by creating insecurity such that Joluo abandon their homes for good. In southern and central Pinyluo the proceeds of corruption in Kampala e.g. Temagalo, NSSF and other corruption scandals and Nairobi e.g. Goldenberg, National Youth Service and other corruption scandals are ploughed back into the economy through the buying of real estate. Since Joluo are absent at the tables where the loot is shared, the money is used to buy up our territories. Shiny new buildings in our cities are not Luo owned and that is just the ominous tip of the iceberg.
What is the LNC way of Thinking?
The LNC way of thinking is that Joluo should take responsibility for Pinyluo. Conventional Luo thinking up to this point in time, the attitude of Joluo has been that “the government” should take care of Pinyluo and we Joluo should strive to be “in government” in Nairobi or Kampala or Juba in order to take care of Pinyluo.
The LNC thinking is that we should take care of ourselves Joluo and Pinyluo without bothering to be “in government”. This thinking is based on the realization that the interests of the state as created by the British and now captured by other nations is more often than not in conflict with the national interests of Joluo. For example the interest of the state is to divide and rule Joluo and therefore the state creates boundaries of counties and districts in Pinyluo to make Joluo as uncoordinated as possible while the interest of Joluo is to have boundaries such that as much coordination of our people as possible is enabled.
What traits would you say are lacking for most Luo leaders today?
Luo leadership in Kenya as well as in Uganda has been impeded by a Luo focus on Nairobi and Kampala instead of focusing on Pinyluo to build a powerbase pacho. This neglect of pacho was caused by the ideological bias of those early Luo leaders towards socialism and panafricanism.
That ideological bias led Luo leaders to set unrealistic and unattainable goals that have cost Joluo dearly in blood and treasure in the last six to seven decades. Central to the unrealistic goals set by Luo leaders is the thought that a Luo leader can be a legitimate leader of other peoples by powers conferred to Luo leaders above the heads of those peoples. Milton Obote tried to use the powers conferred upon him to impose the Ugandan state on the Baganda with disastrous consequences. Jaramogi wisely declined to accept leadership of Kenya but neglected to take other measures in time to checkmate Kenyatta because he believed in “non-tribal”ideals while Kenyatta on his part believed very much in the Kikuyu Nation and immediately set of economically empowering it at the expense of Joluo and other nations.
Is Panluoism a doctrine of LNC, what does it imply?
Yes Panluoism is the LNC ideology, it is the Luo integrationist thought mentioned above.
What is one thing you’d wish to be done differently by leaders in African countries?
Prior to independence African leaders should have had the presence of mind to foresee that the decision to maintain colonial borders at all costs was untenable. As I write the centrifugal forces contained within those artificial borders are causing bloodshed in Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya, Chad, DRC, S.Sudan, all over the Sahel, everywhere and it is only going to get worse.
In the past, how have you responded to, evaluated and learned from mistakes – own and those of your team?
What has helped me see the African condition in general and the Luo condition in particular clearly is the rare privilege that I have had of experiencing different cultures, African and Western that are on the extreme ends of the cultural spectrum: extremely communal African cultures and extremely individualistic European cultures by being fully immersed in both. I have studied in Africa from senior secondary level to tertiary level and then repeated the same in Europe from senior secondary level to University. I have thus been able to observe both societies from very very close quarters.
Tell us about a time when your judgment has been tested in crisis. What do you want us to appreciate about your judgment?
My judgement has not been tested in political public service because I have never been elected except as chairman of the Junior Debating Society in secondary school. However my judgment in my personal life which is informed by close observation of the societies in which I have lived have been vindicated. Living in a country like Sweden where I live, where I have had to learn the language as an adult and then make a career in the public service requires keen observation and sound decision making. There are many examples of people whom arrived in Sweden at the same time who made wrong decisions based on their inability to observe and have ended up in the periphery of European society.
Up to this moment LNC has not had any big crisis, mainly misunderstandings between the leadership team which we always handle by referring to our rules. My judgement is always based on mutually agreed upon rules within the LNC or LNC policy. We aim to build a rules based institution not a one man show organization.
In your attempt to create a “squeaking clean” outfit, what qualities would you say are lacking for most leaders today?
The LNC is a squeaky clean organization and we shall do everything to make it remain so. The very survival of LNC depends on that. In business it is called the “Unique Selling Point”, it is what separates us from the rest. It is impossible for any Kenyan, Ugandan, S.Sudanese, Ethiopian or an institution from any other colonial state including churches to be clean because of disparate ethnic interests within those institutions. By eliminating the ethnic interests as we are all Joluo within LNC we are able to have a zero tolerance policy on corruption and nepotism without any negative fallout. For example in the LNC it is possible for us to have the entire executive comprising of people called Okello, Nyakello, Akello, Okello, Ukello, without any controversy whatsoever while maintaining diversity, merit and competence.
Hosted on May 26th by Mr. Oguna Mamba
END OF PART 1
