Saturday, January 22, 2011

Ntimama flees from angry youth



Written By:KBC reporter,    Posted: Sat, Jan 22, 2011

Minister William Ole Ntimama
Haeritage minister William Ole Ntimama was forced to flee after he was confronted by a group of pastoralists in olkaria accusing him of meddling with their affairs.
The pastoralists who had converged to elect their representatives to the Lake Naivasha taskforce claimed the minister had ferried people from Narok and Kajiado to endorse his cronies.
A week after a meeting he had called in the same area ended prematurely, Ntimama faced the same wrath from the crowd drawn from the geothermal rich area.
Carrying placards and clubs the heckled the minister forcing his guards to forcing his guards to whisk him to safety.   The minister had called the meeting to elect the area leaders and 21 representatives to the Lake Naivasha Task force.
The move ended up splitting the community into two groups with a group led by Maenga Ole Kisotu accusing the minister of meddling with Naivasha affairs.
Unmoved by the differences, the minister arrived amid tight security and tried to convince both parties to participate in the elections.
It was at this juncture that the Kisotu team boycotted the elections accusing the minister of ferrying people from Narok and Kajiado to the area.
Ntimama later presided over the elections where his supporters went ahead to elect their representatives Mr Rantoine ole Ngamasai and Andrew ole Koisamou as their leaders.
But Kisotu dismissed the elections terming them as a sham as he wondered what interest Ntimama had in the area.
"We castigate the minister for his actions as it has ended up splitting the community and bringing unnecessary tension," he said
His sentiments were echoed by Mr John Sironi who called on Ntimama to respect the wishes of Naivasha  people who had trust in their leaders.
On his part, Ntimama termed the elections as fair and democratic as he lashed at the faction that had boycotted the exercise.
He called on the flower farmers and the geothermal company to work with the new committee which he termed as legitimate and represented the wishes of the Maasai.
"I take issue with Kengen whose practices are wanting and I direct them to deal henceforth with members of this committee,"
On his part, Koisamou said that they would address the Maasai issues and make sure the community got back some benefits from companies in the area.

No comments:

Post a Comment