A section of Rift Valley leaders has banded together to call for the arrest of Tiaty MP William Kamket following his utterances during the Mashujaa Day Celebrations which they deemed inciting.
Although he started his speech in a rather neutral way by urging the Pokot residents of Mukutani to coexist peacefully with residents from the Tugen and Ilchamus tribes in the town, his resolute stand on issues regarding Mukutani town being gazetted as a forest took a turn.
Kamket raised deep concerns about the gazetting of Mukutani as a forest, calling whoever was responsible for the undertaking a crook. He promised that the community would deal with the matter themselves and there would be no need to take the matter further to Nairobi.
“We will handle that ourselves, Nairobi, this does not concern you. There is no forest on that side. No public participation was done. That is a land with people who live there in peace,” he said.
Digging deeper into the Mukutani forest issue, Kamket stated that they had held a meeting with the former County Commissioner and agreed that whoever decided to build an administrative office in the town, including the Chief's and District Officer's office should leave a distance of one kilometer from the town.
“Because of respect for the government I agreed on the terms, however, our friends from Baringo South have built inside the town and you did not stop them. You have stopped me who followed orders and went one kilometer away. Because we want to live in peace, you will let me also build the Chief’s office for Mukutani in Mukutani Town.”
Possibly foreshadowing what was to come, Kamket stated that he was not trying to incite anyone saying, “Do not say that Kamket incited people. I’m just saying with respect because that was the same thing that happened in Kapedo when we tried to build anything there yet it is still in Tiaty. The police kept summoning me and if you want to summon me again on this Mukutani matter please do. We don’t want the security team to be part of the insecurity.”
This rhetoric did not sit well with the leaders in the area. Speaking to the media on October 23, a section of them stated that Kamket’s divisive utterances could lead to tribal clashes in the region.
“We want to see Kamket behind bars. He is an inciter and a warlord, he mentioned Kapedo. He said that anyone against him on the Mukutani issue would deal with him. Is he above the law? We want to tell the nation that there is mistreatment being brought on by just one person and he is hiding behind the word forest. If he has an issue with the forest what does it have to do with Tiaty?” One questioned.
Another urged the national government to make Ilchamos a constituency and make it easier for their grievances to be addressed in the National Assembly. He even accused Kamket of using bandits to push people to agree with his terms.
“NCIC, DCI, and human rights groups need to act. We have decided as leaders that other people cannot come and tell us how to keep our projects going. The people of the community agreed on the gazetting of the Mukutani Forest and we have seen its benefits,” another said.
True to his word, Kamket has now begun the construction of the Chief’s office as promised in his speech and the Baringo South leaders believe that that is a way to intimidate them noting that this is not the first time he has used divisive language to incite the Pokot against the Tugen and the Ilchamus people.
“We want all the institutions to take necessary measures and ensure Kamket is in Court following hate speech because he has been in and out and we are not seeing justice. We are really suffering and we are in pain,” another added.
