Legislators clash in House over aspirant and MCA killing
Tiaty parliamentary aspirant Simon Pepee (left) who was killed alongside MCA Kibet Cheretei by unknown attackers on February 18, 2017 and Tiaty MP Asman Kamama at a past event at Kabarnet, Baringo County. Mr Kamama and Baringo North MP William Cheptumo clashed in Parliament on Tuesday over the deaths. PHOTO | CHEBOITE KIGEN | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Baringo North MP William Cheptumo took on his Tiaty counterpart Asman Kamama soon after debate on insecurity in their home county started.
- Mr Kamama sought to exonerate himself from blame over the attack at the bar where Simon Pepee, his rival, and MCA Fredrick Cheretei were killed.
- Temporary Speaker Moses Cheboi sought to have Mr Kamama stop digressing from commenting on the killings, but he refused to do.
Two Jubilee MPs from Baringo County clashed in the National Assembly on Tuesday evening over the killing of an aspirant and a Member of County Assembly at a bar in Marigat on Friday night.
William Cheptumo (Baringo North, Jubilee) took on his Tiaty counterpart Asman Kamama soon after debate on a special motion on insecurity in their home county started.
Mr Kamama started his contribution by seeking to exonerate himself from blame over the attack at the bar where Simon Pepee, his rival, and MCA Fredrick Cheretei were killed.
“I have grown up in the church. I am a cool guy,” Mr Kamama said.
But he was forced to cut his contribution short as Mr Cheptumo, who was sitting behind him, rose on a point of order and demanded that Mr Kamama record a statement with the police over the matter.
RECORD STATEMENT
“If he knows that the attackers were from the Tugen community, he should be the one to record a statement,” said the visibly agitated Mr Cheptumo.
Temporary Speaker Moses Cheboi sought to have Mr Kamama stop digressing from commenting on the killings, but the chairman of the Committee on Security and Administration refused to.
He said that from speaking to other people who were at the scene of the killing, the hooded attackers spoke to each other in Tugen before they left.
Other MPs asked the government to take action on the killings in the Rift Valley in the same way that its predecessor acted on the proscribed Mungiki sect.
“What happened with Mungiki? We were all called and told that anybody who talks to Mungiki, who gives money to Mungiki, would be dealt with. The late Michuki did it,” said Rachel Shebesh (Nairobi Woman Representative, Jubilee).
CONSTANT ATTACKS
Ms Shebesh questioned the efficiency of the Interior ministry and the National Intelligence Service in getting to the bottom of the killings.
She said that through their networks, Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery and the NIS should know who are behind the constant attacks between communities in Baringo and West Pokot counties.
Concerned about the cyclical fighting between pastoralist communities in the Rift Valley, Nominated MP Johnson Sakaja last year sponsored a Bill seeking to make cattle rustling a capital offence punishable by the death sentence.
MPs in the House asked the government to deal with the menace in the same brutal way that it did with the Sabaot Land Defence Forces.
Kapenguria MP Samuel Moroto asked the Interior ministry to take the matter more seriously than it has and deal with the culprits.
Mwingi North MP Mati Munuve said the problem had also happened in his constituency, where bandits suspected to have come from a neighbouring killed an old man and chopped his body into pieces.
