How can we even dare to speak the words “Baringo Mpya” if we continue to watch our farmers struggle in the dirt while others grow fat off their hard work? It is a betrayal of the highest order. We produce the honey, we rear the finest livestock, and we toil under the sun to grow our crops, yet we allow middle-men and “brokers” to walk away with the lion’s share of the profit. How can we allow other people to make money from the crops we produce while our own children go hungry?
Agriculture isn’t just what we do; it is who we are—powering nearly 70% of Baringo’s entire economy. To build a Baringo Mpya, we must prioritize and strengthen the very sector that feeds our families and drives our growth.
The cold, hard truth from our recent ground survey is devastating: 41.3% of our households are suffocating under the weight of a lack of jobs and a crushing cost of living. And yet, the solution is staring us in the face. We are a county of producers, but we are being treated like a colony for outside interests. 68.5% of our people have already spoken—they are tired of their sweat being stolen by brokers. They are demanding local processing factories for our honey, our meat, and our hides.
While we sit in meetings and watch projects stall due to mismanagement, other counties are busy leaving us in the dust. It is a wake-up call that we can no longer ignore: even “dry” counties like Makueni are now outperforming Baringo’s agriculture sector. While they are building modern markets and securing international trade deals for their produce, Baringo remains stuck in a cycle of exporting raw goods and importing poverty.
The ONLY way that Baringo survives and builds a new future is if our people keep the majority of the income they earn. We must stop exporting our wealth! Every time a raw animal hide or a bag of unprocessed crops leaves this county, we are exporting jobs and importing poverty. It is an economic crime that 47% of our citizens live in poverty while our natural resources are siphoned off by parasites who haven’t spent a single day in our fields.
We are finished with the “Old Baringo” way of doing things—where leadership watches from air-conditioned offices while the farmer’s cooperative is gutted by corruption and mismanagement. 37.1% of you have seen the stalled projects and the wasted funds, and you know exactly where that money should have gone: into the pockets of the producers.
A “New Baringo” isn’t a slogan; it’s an economic war. It is a war for the “Farmer’s Wealth Guarantee”. We will build the factories here. We will process our own goods here. We will ensure that when a animal is sold, the money stays in the pocket of the man or woman who raised it.
If we cannot take care of the people who feed us, then we have no right to lead. The era of the broker is over. The era of the farmer has begun.
Baringo Mpya. Our Sweat. Our Wealth. Our Future.