Kipsigis vote key in deciding who Narok’s next governor will be
The 100,000 Kipsigis community vote is turning out to be a key factor and battleground in the Narok governor race between Azimio La umoja candidate Moitalel ole Kenta and his Kenya kwanza competitor Patrick ole Ntutu.
Despite both Kenta and Ntutu hailing from the populous Purko clan of the Maasai community, the race is clouded by ethnic balance arithmetic and the unending Mau forest saga that are seen to be the fault lines along which the battle for control of Narok will be fought.
If the electorate votes along ethnic lines as they have done in the past, then the Kipsigis vote becomes a swing vote for both candidates as they occupy Emurua Dikirr, Narok West and Narok South constituencies.
This is causing jitters among contestants because the Maa community has numerical strength and has historically voted as a block.
The ethnic factor has been reverberated by the duo's pick of their deputies, Ntutu picked a 26-year-old Tamalinye Koech from Emurua Dikirr constituency.
Kenta settled for William Oletetia as his deputy - a seasoned banker from Uasin Gishu clan from Transmara West.
Kenta's decision to pick fellow tribesman has been termed a ‘Maa community revolution’ to use their numbers to produce a purely Maasai leadership in Narok county leadership - a move that has made some label him a tribalist.
The Maasai vote, which is about 250,000 of the eight Maasai clans including the populous Purko, Keekonyokie, Ildamat, Uruasi Ngishu, Loita, Moitanik, Siria, and the Dorobos will be the battleground for the two candidates, with Kenta seen to be having a huge chunk of the Maasai vote.
Kipsigis and other minority tribes in Narok
Other minority tribes have a voting block of close to 50,000 majorities being from the Kikuyu, Luo and Kisii communities living in urban centres like Narok town which is county headquarters.
On Tuesday July 19, 2022, Kenta made a daring political foray into one of the Kipsigis-inhabited constituencies -Narok South - in an effort to shed off the tribal tag that his opponents are using against him after picking his Kinsman for a running mate.
The Narok North MP addressed a political rally at Kimogoro trading Centre and declared that he was not anti-Kipsigis as he had previously been portrayed, promising members of the community jobs in his government and to champion resettlement of the Maasai Mau evictees.
“I am here today for you to see that I am just as human as you are, and assure the Kipisgis community that you are equally important as the host Maasai community and you will benefit equally when we form a government after the August 9 poll,” Kenta said.
On the Maasai Mau forest evictions, Kenta distanced himself from the exercise in 2019 saying those behind the eviction, which saw over 60,000 people evicted, were close to leaders in government positions.
“I not one of the people behind the Mau forest evictions. But those in leadership when the eviction was contacted including Deputy President William Ruto, Governor Samuel Tunai, the area MP Korei Lemein, Women Rep Soipan Kudate, CAS Joseph Boinett at the IG office while my competitor Patrick ole Ntutu was interior CAS, who is to blame here?” Kenta posed.
Kenta reiterated that there were cartels who had duped the settlers into buying government forest including family members of his competitor who he didn’t name, but stressed that they must return money to the evictees which they were given when they sold the land.
"Some known land merchants cheated settlers into buying 'air' in the forest and when I take over I will make sure that those cartels are brought to book to return the money or give the IDP an alternative land to live even in their own farms," he said.
Kenta is battling it out with Ntutu who has endeared himself to the Kipsigis community due to his closeness with DP Ruto and outgoing county governor Samuel Tunai. Ntutu has been assuring residents that his Kenya Kwanza team is inclusive and that his opponents are tribal for not allocating the deputy governor position to the Kipsigis community.
However, Ntutu who had been endorsed by Governor Tunai as his preferred successor, said by picking a Kipsigis - the second populous community in the county - for a running mate he would have killed two birds with one stone.
On one side, he is seen as satisfying the youth as well as aiming for the Kipsigis vote and on the other, he is seen to be continuing the legacy of Tunai who in his two terms in office he was deputized by a member of the Kipsigis community.
In 2013, Governor Tunai picked Evalyn Aruasa from the Kipsigis community as his running mate and they both went ahead to win in the 2017 elections.
