Idea Transcript
DAILY NATION FRIDAY JULY 30 1993
4
YOUR COMPLETE
He sacrifilced
Weekender VENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Underwater his opera makes a splash
studies for politics _______________________
F
By ADUDA DAVID
or Henry Dickens Onyancha Obwocha, (FORD-K) politics means sacrifice. And it is for that reason that he left his postgraduate studies at the prestigious Templeton College of Oxford University to contest, albeit unsuccessfully, the West Mugirango parliamentary seat during the 1988 parliamentary elections. Since then the urge to offer better leadership to his people has never wavered. The decision to enter politics, the legislator says, came when he realised that the past MPs were doing little to better the life of the people. The constituency, Obwocha says, has a host of teething economic and social problems. To start with the constituency is cut from the world because of transport problems. The new Nyamira district has no single tarmac road. The one from Chemosit in Kericho district which was started in the seventies stalled before reaching the Nyamira border and up to now nothing has been said let alone done about it. Because of communication problem, the MP says the farmers cannot transport their farm produce to the markets. This being a highly productive region, better transport is a priority. Despite the fact the region has water catchments, clean water is a pipe dream. According to the MP it is not difficult to get water to the people of West Mugirango and for that matter the entire Nyamira district as this requires
IN HIGH PLACES -
reservoirs at the water catchment areas. Untreated water and cold climate, the MP says, cause many health problems yet health facilities are badly lacking. The district hospital is yet to be completed, the local dispensaries are just but facades and the people have to depend on the Kisii district hospital which is many miles away. The rural electrification programme that was started in the region years ago was implemented in a very dubious way, says the MP. Obwocha is not happy with the way Kanu is going about doing things. He says that six months into multi-party democracy, Kanu is yet to recognise and appreciate the role of the opposition. "Kanu has yet to evolve and accommodate the ideals of multiparty democracy", he says. The opposition, he adds, is still treated with scorn even by the provincial administration. A practising accountant, Obwocha decries the poor state of our economy today and this he blames on poor planning. The Government has no political will to implement policies that could save the country from the economic crisis, he says.
Citing examples, Obwocha says that there is no rationale for the government to devote Sh700 million for establishing new banks while the banking industry is in doldrums. According to him, the economy is 'flat on its back'. Born 45 years ago in Igenaitembe village of West Mugirango division of Nyamira district, Obwocha got his early education at Kianungu primary school before proceeding to Kisii Sch000l for secondary and high school education. He later joined the University of Nairobi from where he studied commerce. And it is at the University that Obwocha's leadership and political inclination took roots. He was a radical student leader during those years when University politics was turbulent. Together with mate James Orengo, then the chairman of the students body and now the Ford Kenya MP for Ugenya, their council waged a war that saw the Africanisation of the faculty of architecture. The move culminated in the now infamous Georgeson affair of 1973. Upon graduation Obwocha worked with various companies and organisations including the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya before resigning to start his Nakuru-based audit firm.
Henry Dickens Onyancha: "Politics means sacrifice."
The audience at Michel Reddolfi's underwater opera in Troia, Portugal, just don't listen to it. They immerse themselves in it. In a large swimming pool under a starry sky music from a synthesiser wafts through the water from submerged speakers. Two metres under water a percussionist in scuba-diving gear plays bronze chimes while a singer on the edge of the pooi adds her voice which is projected through the underwater speakers. "This is an underwater opera where you hear what is going on through your whole body which will be listening through the underwater speakers," the French director tells the audience before the show begins. The audience of 200 swim around the pooi to find a comfortable position realising they can hear the sound only by submerging themselves. They float around the pooi on rubber mats, duck underneath the surface for enhanced sound or dive under water to stare at the percusionnists through the goggles on hand at the pool side. Floating on the surface the body absorbs the sonic variations from the 12 loudspeakers around the pool, the bones conduct the sounds like a tuning fork and the listening experience is enhanced and deepened. The audience are a little embarrassed at first. "It is very intimate but then they get more comfortable and everyone caIrns down" says Susan Bellirig who provides the vocals "It takes people to their deepest point within themselves. It is a meditation a guided meditation," the American born Soppano says.
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