Nairobi — When he opened this year's ASK show in Kisumu, President Kibaki announced what his lieutenants now call Nyanza's Marshall Plan.

The region has suffered marginalisation and impoverishment since independence. Does the Head of State, therefore, deserve three cheers? Yes and no. Yes, because after 56 months in office, Kibaki has at last spotted Nyanza on the map. Yes, because the province deserves this as it is the second largest tax-paying region.

Yes, because the residents have broken their backs for years - in sugar plantations, cotton fields, pyrethrum, coffee and tea farms, and the waters of Lake Victoria - to earn foreign exchange in return for next to nothing. Yes, because the region, in spite of neglect, has still produced a fair share of professionals who keep the wheels of progress turning.

But Kibaki deserves no cheers because like his predecessor, he is playing cheap politics with the region's residents. He recognises that the province is the leading sugar producer. Yet for all their efforts, farmers have ended with a bitter taste in their mouths. The President recalls that in 2003, leaders from Nyanza and Western provinces asked the Government to write off sugar farmers' debts and rehabilitate Miwani, Muhoroni and Chemelil and revamp Nzoia and Sony sugar factories.

This was conveniently ignored. Instead, cheap sugar was imported under non-transparent circumstances. Heavy debts, delayed payments and lack of extension services still plague sugar farming. Miwani, Muhoroni and Chemelil sugar factories are no more than museum pieces.

On infrastructure, the President mentioned the tarmacking and rehabilitation of 260km of road at a cost of Sh4.5 billion, and gravelling of another six roads at a cost of Sh737 million is on the cards. Figures can be mesmerising. But in close to five years the President has been in office, there have been only two major road works in Nyanza - in Nyamira and Bondo.

Construction of the latter - Ndori-Owimbi - began in 2001, but was accelerated when the Kibaki administration took over, thanks to the 'good politics' of Cabinet minister Mr Raphael Tuju. This is definitely a plus for the Head of State because the road had been on the cards for far too long. The other projects include re-carpeting of Kisian-Usenge and Katito-Kendu Bay roads. It is instructive that the proposed projects, including a ring road around Lake Victoria, construction of the Rang'ala-Bondo-Luanda-Kotieno Road, gravelling of Migori-Mihuru and Siaya-Rwambwa roads have been abandoned.

The announcement that tenders for the expansion of Kisumu Airport will be floated next month, and construction to begin in November would have been good news - not just for the region, but also the nation because Kisumu would become the aviation hub of the Great Lakes region.

But we remember that the Sh2.6 billion project was announced in 2003 and work was to commence before the end of that year. Then Transport minister Mr John Michuki and Kenya Airports Authority Chief Executive Mr George Muhoho inspected the facilities.

But four years later, the airport's runway is full of potholes, the terminal building resembles a Luo simba and the Government VIP lounge is the size of a public washroom. The timing of Kibaki's promises raises questions. Why now? Why should construction begin in November? Is there any link between this and the General Election?

The President announced that Nyanza has received Sh1.5 billion from the Constituency Development Fund (CDF). Again, this should be put in proper perspective. CDF disbursement is not based on the President's benevolence or a Marshall Plan. Allocations are partly based on a poverty index and the Sh1.5 billion is a testimony of the extent of impoverishment the region has suffered in the hands of governments, Kibaki's included.

Finally, the President talked of the revival of cotton farming, saying payment to farmers had improved from Sh9 to Sh22 a kilo. This touched a raw nerve. Cotton growers in Nyanza, Western, Eastern and Coast provinces know that the previous Governments killed cotton farming, withheld farmers' dues and collapsed the Kisumu Cotton Mills, Kicomi, and ginneries. Revival of cotton farming depends on the rehabilitation of textile mills and cotton ginneries.

However belated, the President's interest in Nyanza is welcome. However, it must be divorced from vote-seeking.

The writer is a civil society activist