Senate Majority leader Kipchumba Murkomen on Friday hit back at Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja shortly after Sakaja issued a statement terming Murkomen's remarks in Mau Forest, Narok on Thursday as 'disingenious, underhand and disrespectful to President Uhuru Kenyatta'.
Sakaja had issued the statement after Murkomen stated at a public rally that "people who recently entered the government through the window" had teamed up with other unnamed people to orchestrate inhumane evictions in a bid to undermine Deputy President William Ruto.
Murkomen mentioned that the evictions were among the agendas of a memorandum between the afforementioned parties, sparking a barrage of media reports that he was referring to the deal between opposition chief Raila Odinga and President Kenyatta.
Sakaja's statement titled 'Stop Undermining President Uhuru Kenyatta' read in part: "The statements made in Narok yesterday must be condemned as they take us back to poisonous politics of the past punctuated by divisive rhetoric and finger pointing."
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke on Friday, however, Murkomen accused Sakaja of responding to 'figments of his own imagination' stating that Sakaja's assertion that he was undermining the President had no basis.
[caption caption="Senator Murkomen in Mau Forest on 19/07/2018"]
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He noted that he made no reference to either Raila or the handshake, questioning why the media had been quick to pick up the angle.
"Sakaja is responding to figments of his own imagination. I did not mention either by inference or explicitly anything about the handshake," he maintained.
Murkomen declared that he was only fighting for the people of Mau who had been victims of serious violence and harassment by police officers under the guise of the eviction plan.
He further revealed that he contacted Sakaja personally after receiving the statement, noting that the Nairobi lawmaker was 'fumbling' when he questioned him.
The ongoing operation is being co-ordinated by the Kenya Forest Service (KFS), the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the Administration Police as the government looks to reclaim 46,000 hectares of forest land.
[caption caption="The statement issued by Senator Johnson Sakaja on 19/07/2018"]
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