Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen, on Tuesday night, April 8, found himself in a tight spot after the publicised clash between economist David Ndii and lawyer Donald B. Kipkorir (DBK) was reignited.
Following the dressing down meted out on the lawyer that went viral on March 31, DBK rekindled the fiery war by attacking Ndii's credentials as an economist.
"Again, the pseudo economist Ndii has unleashed his jobless vermin on me. Besides deep-seated hatred of the Kenyatta family, what else does he hold on to? When was he last consulted by any serious governments or IMF or World Bank? In which peer-reviewed journal has he published?" the lawyer posed in his comeback.
He then went on a tirade, referring to the economist as a primary schoolyard bully who liked wrestling in the mud and challenged him to engage him on an intellectual level.
This prompted the intervention of senator Murkomen, who came in waving the 'peacemaker' banner.
"On a serious note I am asking my brother Kipkorir to leave this thing and pursue other debates. I am not close to Ndii, but someone close to him should also tell him to generate for us more ideas on Covid-19 and the economy. I am willing to listen & see how to advance them," he tweeted.
It was then the turn of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga's close aide Silas Chepkeres Jakakimba to weigh in on the public spectacle.
"I've said in a separate reply that I agree that both gentlemen should call a truce. Ndii is my friend & DBK is my brother. There's no accrual of intellectual dividends to the general learned community when anyone seems to always push other folks back," Jakakimba wrote in a statement directed at Murkomen.
The senator then turned his attention to the economist, urging him to 'go slow' and just end the war of words.
"I am requesting Ndii to end the twitter war with my brother DBK and let’s utilize this space to advance the public good. God bless you all," he posted.
However, Ndii's response almost guaranteed that the two would not be seeing eye to eye anytime soon.
"This is not a village squabble for elders to settle. Cambridge controversy went on for 2 decades. Mazrui-Soyinka battled for months. Kipkorir provoked me to challenge him on the theory of justice. Chickened out. Goes on to throw down the gauntlet in economics. No quarter asked no quarter given," he elucidated.
For good measure, the economist reposted the infamous 'Young Billionaire Sonko Malong' analogy that tore into DBK's proposal to have the government print Ksh750 billion and inject it into the economy as part of the country's response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was this very proposal that sparked the latest clash between the two, with Ndii using his detailed analogy, where he cast Kipkorir as the president of a fictional nation called Kiplombe, to explain that money isn't wealth.
"First, President Malong suffers from money illusion. He thinks money is wealth. No one told him that money is a medium of exchange," his detailed analogy reads in part.
