Money and politics: How 2013 poll tsunami has come to haunt Narok

What you need to know:

  • Ripple effects of political earthquake were felt this past week in an ugly and fatal confrontation.
  • Detention of legislators followed by day-long barricade of key roads in the county.

As results were trickling in during the 2013 General Election, it became apparent that an earthquake of sorts had happened in Narok County.

Maasai political supremo and ODM kingpin in the region, William ole Ntimama, had lost his seat. Ousted with him were a number of Narok political old timers.

Samuel ole Tunai of URP, a former intelligence officer, was elected governor in a county that had been an ODM stronghold.

With Mr Ntimama’s exit and the emergence of Mr Tunai and a group of hitherto political unknowns, the old order of Narok politics was turned upside down.

In what some in Narok now say was an incomplete election, more than 50 years of political history, and perhaps even longer had been erased and a new order installed.

Besides Mr Ntimama’s ouster, the influence of the Ntutu family — another local dynasty — was equally curtailed.

Although the Ntutus were playing at the national level, one in the Senate and the other in the National Assembly, they had no influence in Narok town from where their father — Paramount Chief Lerionka Ntutu – had ruled the roost up to the late 1980s.

The ripple effects of this political earthquake were felt this past week, when the months-long clamour to oust Governor Tunai played out in an ugly confrontation in Narok town where two people died.

The unprecedented detention of the local senator and four MPs after the Monday incident was followed by a day-long barricade of key roads in the county.

But this jostling for the first among equals position in Narok also has another related strand.

Despite Mr Tunai’s critics ruling out clan politics in their drive to oust him, clan and ethnic patronage is at the heart of the intense rivalry.

Analysts say the Purko have never come to terms with their changed fortunes.

Senator Stephen ole Ntutu, MPs Patrick Ntutu, Moitalel ole Kenta and Korei ole Lemein, all of whom come from the majority Purko clan, are leading the onslaught against the governor, who comes from the minority Siria clan.

Kilgoris MP Gideon Konchellah and Narok East’s Ken Kiloku — both from minority clans — support Mr Tunai as does Women Representative Soipan Tuya and 30 MCAs.

While Mr Ntimama has not been at the frontline of the dispute in recent weeks, his daughter Lydia and niece Leah are in the anti-Tunai crusade.

Mr Kenta — the Narok North MP — insists that what they are fighting for is equity in employment and resource allocation.

“He (Mr Tunai) has sidelined the Maasai, favouring outsiders in employment opportunities that arose with devolved units,” says Mr Kenta.

The county is home to six Maasai clans: Purko, Keekonyokie, Ildamat, Uasinkishu, Siria and Moitanik.

Mr Kenta says key county ministries such as Agriculture, Education, Health and Finance are managed by non-Maasai people.

“The situation is the same in other senior positions which have been given to non-Maasais. This is what has pained us. We cannot accept the Maasai, who are the majority, to be sidelined on their own soil,” he said.

The lawyer claims the governor had hired 70 per cent of new county staff from outside the Maasai community, leaving it to scramble for just 30 per cent of the posts.

Mr Tunai’s battle to preserve his seat started immediately after he romped home with more than 80,000 votes in the March 2013 polls; his time in office has been tumultuous.

In the first year, he battled, and won, a petition in court challenging his election.

BEEN UNTACTFUL

The 41-year-old governor enjoyed massive following from his home area of Kilgoris as well as Narok West, Narok South and Emurua Dikirr where the Kipsigis voted for him to the last man, bringing to an end the Purko dominance in the county.

Mr Tunai won after the populous Purko stood three contestants for the seat of governor — Musuni ole Tiampati, who is now Transport Principal Secretary, Johnson ole Nchoe and Francis Nkoitoi — all of who got substantial votes.

Analysts argue that whereas Mr Tunai was only being politically savvy by rewarding the Kipsigis with more positions than they enjoyed in the county when the Purko dominated the leadership, he has perhaps been untactful in doing this since to rule comfortably he needs the acceptance of the Maasai.

Mr Tunai touched a raw nerve when he engineered the replacement of revenue officials at the game reserve citing loss of cash.

His critics say most of those who lost jobs were Maasai.

When Mr Tunai took over the management of the county, Kenya Airports Parking Services won a tender to collect Maasai Mara National Reserve entry fees.

This didn’t go down well with the senator, the four MPs and their followers, who want the five-year e-ticketing deal renegotiated to protect the government from revenue losses.

They claim the contract awarded to Kaps was not done transparently and that remittance of funds was procedurally deducted from the source.

ACTING AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION

The leaders’ crusade was given impetus by a report by the Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo who told the Senate Committee on Finance that Kaps and the Mara Conservancy that manages the Mara Triangle were acting against the Constitution and the law on public finance management to deduct funds at source.

“All funds collected and received from the national government must be deposited in the county fund account at the Central Bank and approval sought from the Controller of Budget office before expenditure,” Ms Odhiambo said.

The Ntutu group has demanded that the Kaps contract be revoked to make way for fresh applications. The Maasai Mara generates up to Sh2 billion annually.

The team also wants the governor removed from office on the basis of conflict of interest, claiming that he is a director and a majority shareholder of The Mara Conservancy, a group that manages the Mara Triangle, a huge section of Maasai Mara National Reserve.

Mr Tunai also faced major opposition from the elected leaders when he attempted to hive off 700 acres of land belonging to the Purko clan, the Limanet Holding Ground, for expansion of Narok where he was accused of interfering with Maasai trust land without consulting elders.

The leaders further accused Mr Tunai of mismanaging county resources, claiming some Sh16 billion from the national government and local revenue is unaccounted for.

The anti-governor team also argues that roads in productive areas such as the Mau region where the county rakes in hundreds of millions annually in cess from wheat and barley, have been left to decay while those in areas they consider unproductive continue to receive attention.

CARTEL NO LONGER BENEFITING

However, the governor insists that not one cent has been lost, and that he is being fought for putting systems in place to check past theft and the old ways of doing things.

Mr Tunai says there is a cartel that includes some of the county staff who used to siphon public funds who are no longer benefiting. He further accuses his critics of playing cheap politics driven by vested interest.

On Saturday, the governor got support from Narok East MP Kiloku who blamed his colleagues for inciting the public against a legitimately elected government and asked Senator Ntutu to desist from issuing unnecessary ultimatums.

While there was an uneasy calm in the county yesterday, the ripple effects of the week’s confrontation and the dramatic arrest and detention of the senator and the four MPs, could be felt in Kajiado Central, analysts say.

Author and Maasai cultural analyst Sironka ole Masharen says the humiliating move against the leaders could boomerang on President Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto’s Jubilee which has been having the upper hand in Maasailand after the last election.

Mr Masharen said the Narok saga could not have come at a worse time for Jubilee.

“The Maasai are inherently a very proud people. This pride has been hurt in a very big way by the humiliation of their leaders. Even though Narok and Kajiado are not homogenous, anything, especially from an outside force, that hurts the pride of one section unites them.”

Mr Masharen’s sentiments were supported by Melili ward MCA Joseph Lemurt who said they were “at an advanced stage of defecting to Cord”.

On Wednesday, Cord leader Raila Odinga was in court to commiserate with Mr Ntutu and MPs Patrick Ntutu, Mr Lemein, Mr Kenta and Emurua Dikirr’s Johana Ng’eno who were released on bond.

And on Saturday, Deputy President William Ruto met with the two groups separately at his Karen home to reconcile them.

He first met with the group led by Senator Stephen ole Ntutu in the morning, and Governor Samuel Tunai and his group in the afternoon.

“The DP (Mr Ruto) indeed met separately with the Narok County leaders. The DP believes the conflict in Narok is unnecessary distraction. He believes the leaders in the county have more that unites them than that which divides them,” the Director of Communication in the Deputy President’s Office Emmanuel Talam said in a statement.