Five-point plan to improve constituency

By Maseme Machuka

For Dr Joyce Laboso, joining Parliament was like a blessing amid misfortune.

She rode through the murky political waters to the august House after the sudden death of her sister, Lorna Laboso, whose seat she competed for and won.

Populist policies

She has set her agenda for the constituency in the next four years. In one of her constituency capacity building meetings, she was asked to explain what she had in store for them on a wide range of issues.

She humbly replied: "I cannot promise, but I will try."

Why that approach? we ask.

"I have always been an honest worker and a realistic person. I do not want to injure the trust that the people bestowed on me and dim their sprits. I try as much as possible not to make them lose hope," she replies.

She has come up with a five-pointer four-year plan.

Sotik MP Joyce Laboso with her mother, Rebecca, at her farm in the district. [PHOTOS: PIUS CHERUIYOT/STANDARD

"We want projects that we can sustain and achieve without haste. Projects that are viable, both in infrastructure and personnel. Mine are not populist policies that will excite the people, but projects that will benefit them," she told the meeting at Kaplong Boys High School.

"The people are my mirror. They are my traffic signs, which will show green when I need to move on, yellow when I need to slow down and red when I need to stop. That’s the way to go and achieve this goal," she tells us in an interview.

Laboso respects the mandate given to her and executes it to benefit the people of Sotik.

"I want to make Sotik a constituency that will be the herald of the young, the hope of the poor and a Canaan for those that have gone through the long and tiresome slog, through the desert of poverty, frustration and misery," she says.

Water provision

Laboso has singled out roads, water and electricity as key in her development goals. Others are women and youth.

"Roads in our constituency are impassable and this is one area that, if addressed, will make the rest of the programmes easier. I also want to ensure that the women of Sotik have water to spare them the burden of fetching it from the river, and save their energy for other productive work," she says.

The MP wants to involve the Ministry of Water and K-Rep Bank to boost water provision in the constituency.