{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Fist of fury: Nkaissery's Advent In Maasailand As Powerman | The Star

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Fist of fury: Nkaissery's Advent In Maasailand As Powerman

The Narok tensions factor could impact the Kajiado by-election

When President Kenyatta finally replaced his first Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku with General (Rtd) Joseph Nkaissery, also a Maasai, he raided ODM's ranks and caused the by-election for the Kajiado Central constituency seat scheduled for February 12.

Nkaissery's nomination was a popular move, coming as it did towards the end of a year in which terrorists and violent criminals, including cattle rustling bandits, had run rings around the national security networks, including the Kenya Defence Forces.

As a retired Army General, Nkaissery had a defence and national security background and immense experience. Lenku had neither the background nor the experience – and it showed.

Parliament's endorsement of the nomination was a swift and rare bipartisan foregone conclusion.

But matters began to unravel when Nkaissery started to flex his muscle on the ground in Maasailand. Two events stand out, both of them extraordinarily egotistical and dangerous to Jubilee's support in the region.

In late January, when a number of elected leaders and their very large following determined that they wanted Narok Governor Samuel Tunai to vacate office following corruption and nepotism allegations, Nkaissery intervened heavy-handedly on the county chief's side.

Nkaissery bans mass action demos

The first was the banning by Nkaissery of all protest gatherings in Narok in the week of January 25 to 31.

The minister said bluntly that there was a risk of such mass action resulting in violence. He urged the angry area leaders and their even more inflamed followers to seek dialogue with Tunai.

In a statement to newsrooms, he sought to justify this by remarking: "The government also wishes to point out that when allegations of corruption in Narok county emerged, officers from the office of the Auditor-General as well as the office of Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission were swiftly dispatched to the county to investigate."

"Leaders from the area are advised to resolve their issues through dialogue instead of employing tactics that could escalate into violence," he said.

The leaders and people of Narok arrayed against Governor Tunai and his faction were astounded. After all the EACC, as was amply demonstrated in Parliament this week when its leadership was summoned by the National Assembly Justice and Legal Affairs Committee to explain why it has not unearthed a single corrupt person in an era of runaway graft, has long been known to be fast asleep on the job.

The previous week, the EACC had announced it had launched investigations into vast misappropriation of funds by the Narok county government, particularly revenue collection in the world-famous Masai Mara Game Reserve.

On Monday January 26, Narok Senator Stephen ole Ntutu and MPs Moitalel ole Kenta (Narok North), Patrick Ntutu (Narok West), Johana Ng'eno (Emurua Dikirr) and Korei ole Lemein (Narok South) led a very large crowd indeed to the Governor's office compound. When the crowd made as if it would smash the gate and invade the county government of Narok, riot police fired both directly at it and in the air.

Massive violence followed, as the police beat the demonstrators in the process of dispersing them. There was teargas everywhere.

Two people were shot dead by the security agencies and there were eight injured, including a top cop.

Elected leaders are shown who calls the shots

The plot thickened when the protest leaders were summoned to CID headquarters in Nairobi and took their time getting there. When they eventually turned up, a day later than scheduled, and made their statements, the top leaders were escorted to their vehicles and motorcades – and then promptly informed they were under arrest.

The leaders were ordered to present themselves at the Muthaiga Police Station at 6.15pm.

To their utter amazement, at Muthaiga they were told they would be charged with incitement to violence, flung into the cells, denied cash bail and held overnight.

The result of all this banning, violent dispersal, interrogation feints and compelling six elected leaders to sleep on cold concrete floors overnight amidst hardened criminals and street boys was that the following day Narok imploded.

'Narok is on fire!'

When Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko, himself also a Maasai, rushed to the Milimani law courts and declared, "Narok is on fire", he personally withdrew his own draconian application for the leaders to be held for seven more days.

Senior principal magistrate Enock Cherono did the DPP's bidding and rescheduled the case for mention on February 13.

That will be the day after the Kajiado Central by-election.

There is no way so many elected Maasai leaders and so many of their followers could be brutalised and otherwise given such short shrift except at the very direct say-so of someone very high up on the ruling Jubilee totem pole.

That Nkaissery has become imperious and intransigent with the newfound Interior ministerial flag became explicit on the evening of Monday January 26, when President Uhuru Kenyatta met a delegation of Maasai leaders at State House, Nairobi.

Nkaissery flatly refused to attend the meeting until Purko MCA Samuel Kipaika, a bitter detractor who often takes the mickey out of him, was removed. After consulting Nkaissery, the President asked Kipaika to leave.

No one has ever been ejected from State House in this summary fashion before, across four Presidential administrations and including in Kanu's single-party heyday.

Nkaissery does not seem to be exactly endearing the Uhuru administration to the Maasai community.

URP lawmakers snub party boss Ruto

At midweek, five Narok county MPs opposed to Governor Tunai snubbed a meeting called by Deputy President William Ruto to discuss the problem.

Ruto had planned to meet the leaders, all of them elected on his URP ticket, at his official residence in Karen to seek a truce with the embattled but well-connected Tunai.

The anti-Tunai camp unconvincingly claimed they were not officially invited and did not know the agenda.

The leaders on the governor's side include MPs Ken Kiloku (Narok East), Soipan Kudate (Women's representative) and Gideon Konchella (Kilgoris).

The team opposed to Tunai's leadership is led by Senator Stephen Ntutu, MPs Korei ole Lemein (Narok South), Patrick Ntutu (Narok West), Moitalel ole Kenta (Narok North) and Johana Ng'eno (Emurua Dikirr).

Instead, the leaders, led by Senator Ntutu, Kenta and MP Ntutu, met all day at Serena Hotel, Nairobi, with a committee of leaders fiercely opposed to Tunai.

Even before Ruto was so humiliatingly snubbed by his own MPs, Raila had quickly taken advantage of the situation in Narok to begin to popularise himself anew in the region.

During the burial of Sikona ole Muntet, a shooting victim of the violence in Narok, in Esupetai village, Narok South subcounty on Monday, Raila said it was sad that the Jubilee administration had humiliated leaders who were fighting for the rights of the people.

"It is disheartening to see the leaders handcuffed just like hardcore criminals, when they were fighting the corruption foe," declared Raila.

Fist of fury: Nkaissery's Advent In Maasailand As Powerman | The Star
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