A NEAR PUNCH-UP AS ASPIRANTS IN KONOIN CAME FACE TO FACE AT A FUNERAL GATHERING

By Kipsiele Arap Sugurut
Luocome, Kericho

Sensing inevitable defeat at the next polls, the KANU MP for Konoin in Bureti District, Hon. Sammy Koech is reported to have thrown in the towel and vowed not to defend his seat.

The rumour, however, could not be immediately confirmed, though it is widely spread in the entire length and bredth of the agriculturally rich Konoin Constituency. Efforts to establish contact with the incumbent MP, Koech were also fruitless as the MP is said to be in the habit of evading and avoiding the press.

The youthful Koech, has been under scathing criticism for his poor style of leadership, poor disbursement of the CDF, HIV/Aids Control Funds, School Bursary Funds and other monies from the Treasury posted by the government for the development projects within the constituency.

The MP is blamed for lack of effective supervision of the money meant for the improvement of the feeder and access roads within the constituency under the District Roads Maintenance Funds. Farmers are finding it difficult to transport their green tea leaves to the nearby factories due to poor roads. Most of the roads have been rendered impassable following the recent heavy down pour. But the MP is said to have disappeared in the thin air of Nairobi not to be seen in the constituency.

Meanwhile, there was a near punch-up and physical combat between several aspirants for Konoin seat and the immediate MP for the area Raphel Kitur during the funeral of a Mr. Koskei at Kipkalmet village, in Bureti district.

The trouble was sparked off following claims and allegations in some quarters that the immediate former MP for the area Mr. Raphael Kitur had in the year 2006 sat for the CPE examination in a private school in Nairobi, but failed to pass the test.

Obviously worked up by the allegation, Kitur who was present, charged that the rumours and allegations were the work of his political enemies, while pointing out an accusing finger at a number of parliamentary hopefuls who had also attended the funeral.

Some of them kept laughing, while others vehemently refuted Kitur sentiments saying they were not involved in the rumours at all. But the enraged Kitur strongly denounced his rivals charging that they were the ones spreading the dirty rumours against him. He promised them a bruising battle come next December general elections.
  Kitur is said to be making concerted efforts and laying the strategies of recapturing the seat which he lost to the youthful Sammy Koech in the year 2002.
  Kitur at the time had disagreed with former President Daniel Arap Moi in principles.

After losing the KANU ticket in the party's preliminaries, Kitur jumped onto the LDP bandwagon in which he contested in the election proper, but still lost to Koech. He has since returned to KANU. But the electorates are also questioning his academic ability and background to represent them effectively in Parliament.

A good number of high profile aspirants who include Secondary School teachers, agronomists and retired educationists have joined the race, making it quite uncomfortable for the politically mediocre contenders to convince the electorate to vote for them. This is the source of the discontent in Konoin.

The electorate have vowed to vote to parliament only an enlightened person with proper academic background and not a mediocre.

A cross section of interviewed voters said they want to correct the past system in which the voters were pressurized by senior Kalenjin politicians to vote for semi-illiterate candidates not of their choice but to please the political masters. They vowed this will not be repeated again.