www.Kisii.Com: Syndicated news from only reputable sources [Nation, and Standard Newspapers, Kenya Times, KBC, etc.]

MPs told off for opposing Kisii-Kipsigis unity move

  • Print
Details
Published on Friday, 03 February 2012 12:15

MPs opposed to the ongoing peace and reconciliation talks between the Kisii and Kipsigis communities have been told to keep off. Justus Mochoge the chairman of the Kisii Leaders Consultative Forum yesterday supported the talks and said they were non-political. “The MPs and leaders opposed to the talks have not given the way forward. They are just opposing the talks to appease their masters,” Mochoge told the Star on phone. “Why have the politicians not started their talks without political connotations,” wondered Mochoge.

Assistant ministers Richard Onyonka, Manson Nyamweya and Kitutu Masaba ODM chairman Timothy Bosire have spoken out against the talks. “Onyonka attended the last meeting at Chepilat and supported the resolutions. It’s immoral and uncultured for him to turn again and oppose the talks,” Mochoge added.

Mochoge said the talks being spearheaded by elders from the two communities are seeking to find a lasting solution to sporadic clashes along the border of Nyanza and Rift Valley provinces. He denied the talks have political connotations but admitted that there was nothing wrong for politicians to be associated with politics. “Those opposed should either complement or start their own talks. What we are doing is good for both the Kipsigis and Kisii communities.

Nyamweya and Bosire have termed the talks as a UDM affair and accused Eldoret North MP William Ruto of using the talks for political gain. Last month, Ruto and Education minister Sam Ongeri led the two communities in reaching what was named as the Chepilat Accord where the two communities resolved to live peacefully.

Scores of people were killed, thousands displaced and property worth millions of shillings destroyed in the 2007-08 post-election violence along the Nyanza and Rift Valley border. Chepilat town on the boundary of the two communities was worst hit. Several families displaced by the violence are yet to be resettled four years down the line while others have not even received Sh10,000 pledged by the government to resettle. Naivasha MP John Muthuto last week vowed to release in Parliament a list of government officials who embezzled money meant for IDPs.