From being locked up in the aftermath of the August 1, 1982 attempted coup, to being abandoned at a South African airport by former President Daniel Toroitich arap Moi.
There is no doubt that the maverick politician is a chip off the old block. His father, Paul Tirop, a pioneer Christian leader in the South Rift region, was detained for nine years for resisting conscription into forced labour in the 1950s.
Seen by some as playing the role of a latter-day John the Baptist, who was only laying ground for the
community’s exit from Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) in the early days of the grand
coalition government, the cantankerous politician insists he is not a follower of anybody and that he was
in this fight “long before (William) Ruto”, now Deputy President.
In Kalenjin Rift Valley, he has been nicknamed Atiech I? Kipsigis for ‘spoiler’, and he appears set to
muddy the waters for his erstwhile friends, President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and Mr William Samoei
Ruto.
Dozens of MPs have declared that they will set in motion efforts to impeach the Bomet governor, following
his visit to Homa Bay County in what they see as working for the Mr Raila Odinga’s Cord coalition. But
the unrepentant Governor Ruto has laughed off the threat, saying, the MPs had no power to impeach him.
He has now fired a warning shot at the “dynamic duo” asking them “respect devolution as anybody trying
to stop it will be swept away.”
The chairman of the Governors’ Council shared his anger with Saturday Nation.
Q: You were the choirmaster in the song “Don’t be Vague Let us Go to the Hague”. Do you still stand by
your chorus?
A: I was preventing war. The issue then was whether to establish a local tribunal or not. My argument
then was that the plan to establish the tribunals in Eldoret and Kericho would have seen hundreds of
youths arrested because there were video clips. The rest would have taken up arms. I said then even if it
meant some of us being taken to The Hague, so be it. I did it to prevent harassment of our youth.
Q: Your enemies say you should have been on the Ocampo list. How did you miss out?
A: That is ridiculous. My constituency, Chepalungu, was one of the most peaceful during the violence.
Together with Lorna Laboso and former Borabu MP Wilfred Ombui, we were active in reconciling the Kisii
and the Kipsigis on the Borabu-Sotik border. I have never believed in violence.
Q: At least 40 MPs have declared they are going to put in motion efforts to have you impeached over the
mission to Homa Bay recently.
A: I am in very familiar waters. I have gone through worse in my 20-year political career. Removing a
governor is no mean feat. It can’t be done on political whims.
a governor is not bound by the provisions of Article 103, which says a member of Parliament can lose his
seat if removed from his party. It does not apply to governors. I would continue as governor even if they
were to remove me from the United Republican Party (URP).
Q: What is the quarrel?
A: The bureaucrats in the national government are misadvising that money given to the counties in the 14
devolved functions should be retained at the centre.
Q: You laid the ground for the Kalenjin to get out of ODM. Are you on a similar mission?
A: I am in Jubilee to stay and the issues I am raising are close to my heart. What I said in Homa Bay
was that the people of Nyanza were the people of Kenya. That is a fact. I said we must develop a culture
of working together after elections.
Q: So why did you go to Homa Bay?
A: To raise funds for a church. I was returning a favour after Governor Cyprian Awiti visited Bomet. I have
no apologies to make to anyone. I can even go to Siaya tomorrow, then Machakos and any other place in
Kenya.
Q: There are those who say your activities are advancing Cord’s interests.
A: I have not talked to any Cord operative, but governors do not work on party agenda. I work with all the
47 governors. We have the people. I have not fought the government. How can a head of government fight
his own government?
Q: In Kalenjin Rift Valley, you have been nicknamed Atiech I? Kipsigis for ‘spoiler’. You appear to be set
for muddy the waters with Uhuru and William Ruto over devolution.
A: What I am defending is in the Jubilee manifesto. I am the Bomet Governor under URP and Jubilee. If
they are not careful, they will divide the Kalenjin down the middle.
Those MPs who are trying to sabotage devolution are the ones making Jubilee unpopular. They claim to
be digital, but it seems the software is analogue. Do those MPs know how Jubilee was formed? These are
people we gave tickets.
Q: How far are you prepared to go with your mission?
A: The whole hog. I am ready.
Q: Samoei is the leader of the Kalenjin. From where do you summon the courage to throw a spear into
his court?
A: I don’t know where Ruto is coming in. Does he not support devolution? If he is not, he has to come
clear and explain to the people. Is he the one sending the MPs to insult me?
Q: Has he asked you to go slow?
A: I don’t know whether telling MPs to abuse me is intervening. That is a divisive approach, but I can
assure them that I am carrying on with the referendum. (Senators and Governors want to amend Article
95 of the Constitution that gives the National Assembly veto powers over the Division of Revenue Bill.)
Q: Senator Boni Khalwale is introducing a Bill to amend the National Flag, Emblems and Names Act to
prevent governors from flying the national flags outside their jurisdictions. The Bill also ranks Governors
below Senators in the power hierarchy. Are Governors being cut to size?
A: I don’t want to get into argument with Khalwale because he is very petty. However, I believe nobody
should monopolise the national flag or overpromote the use of local symbols. That would not be good for
cohesion.
Q: MPs recently described Governors as imperial mini-presidents. Are Governors drunk with power?
A: They are presidents of their counties. Governors are heads of their governments. They have a Cabinet
and a civil service. The Constitution says the country will have the national government and 47 county
governments and their territorial integrity must be respected.
Q: Your colleagues have been criticised for outrageous spending, part of which borders on obscenity,
such as allocating Sh50 million to fight pornography.
A: Where did that happen? Don’t tell me about that propaganda from Bungoma. I have even heard they
are next going to Bomet to unleash more falsehoods.
Q: As Cabinet minister in 2001, President Moi abandoned you in a South African airport runway in a
winter morning. What happened?
A: I had been in Pretoria for two weeks on government business. I heard that he had sacked (then VP
George) Saitoti and Kalonzo Musyoka. When he arrived in Pretoria, I asked him: “If you sack these guys,
won’t it complicate matters for our Kanu candidate?
What if Saitoti runs? I was in the room with Nicholas Biwott and Moi. A phone rang and I left the room.
Later Biwott called me to ask whether I was the leader of Kanu in Kenya and I told him to go to hell. In the
evening, I sent my bags to the cargo section but they were returned.
The next morning, I tried to board the plane on our way to Nairobi but I was denied access. Moi and his
delegation flew back. I was left on the tarmac. I was stranded for a few more days before I raised funds for
fare back home.
Q: You were detained for three months in the aftermath of the 1982 coup attempt. Did you support efforts
to remove Moi from power?
A: Not really. Neither was I his enthusiastic supporter. We were the student leadership that came after
the radical Sonu had been proscribed. (Tito) Adungosi and I both came from poor families and we didn’t
want to jeopardise our education by supporting subversive activities.
I was very close to Adungosi and I know he was not even aware there was going to be a coup attempt. He
adored Moi and was the only student leader with President Moi’s portrait in his room.
Q: Could this be the reason why students burnt your room accusing you of being a Moi spy?
A: No, no, no. Nothing of the sort happened. It was J.B. Muturi’s room that was burnt. (Mr Muturi is the
Speaker of the National Assembly).
Q: Why?
A: Ha ha ha. No. That is a story for another day. I am not going to tell you. Go and find out for yourselves.
Q: You fought Moi, Raila and now you have taken on Uhuru and Ruto. Who radicalised you?
A: I couldn’t point to any particular person. I was a student when the University of Nairobi was heavily
radicalised.
Q: Which are some of the books you would say have shaped the man you are today?
A: As a student of political science, I got to read a lot of Karl Marx and I was fascinated with historical
materialism and dialectics. I was inspired by Franz Fannon’s The Wretched Of The Earth, literature on
civil rights crusader Malcolm X and Latin American revolutionaries.
Q: The job of a governor is tedious. Do you get time to read?
A: Yes I still read, but now mainly books on leadership. I spend between Sh10,000 and Sh20,000 on
books whenever I travel. I have a big library in Bomet.
Q: What are you reading now?
A: The Heart Of Leadership: Becoming A Leader People Want To Follow by Mark Miller. I have also read
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Bennis Warren’s On Becoming a Leader. The author argues that leaders are not born — they are made.
Q: Which Kenyan author do you read?
A: Since Ngugi stopped churning out his serious novels and revolutionary works, I have not seen any
Kenyan reader worth my time.
Q: Koigi wa Wamwere last week told us that the Uhuru-Ruto government is an alliance between two tribes
and is therefore unlikely to unite the country. You must have a view.
A: The two groups, which have been fighting before, were supposed to be the core, but the rest of the
country has to be brought in. You can’t rubbish Ukambani, Luo Nyanza, Luhyia, Coast and the rest of the
regions.
Q: If you were in Uhuru and Ruto’s shoes, how differently would you have managed the teachers’ strike?
A: I would have withdrawn the court case. You can’t criminalise strikes as they are an integral part of
labour relations. A worker has the right to withdraw his or her labour and negotiate. We don’t even pay our
drivers what teachers are earning.
Q: And how should they treat Raila?
A:We need to respect our leaders. I am not saying this because I have specific sympathies for Raila, but as
a standard practice, which should be applied across the board for all of us when we retire.
Maybe he shouldn’t be treated exactly like Kibaki and Moi because he hasn’t retired, but he should be
accorded respect. Belittling our retired leaders would create Musevenis and Mugabes in Kenya where
nobody will be willing to release the reins of power. Uhuru and Ruto should be magnanimous in power.
- Saturday Nation
