A lesson to lawmakers: Better visit your constituents and listen to their problems.
If not, you may be stoned, jeered, humiliated and chased away. The gifts you brought will be rejected. And at the next poll...
That's what happened on Wednesday to typically AWOL MP Ahmed Bashane when he tried to distribute desks at Mansa Primary School and open a secondary school dorm built by the National Affirmative Action Fund.
National Police Reservists in Tarbaj on Wednesday, fired in the air to disperse Mansa residents who hurled stones and jeered at first-term MP Ahmed Bashane. He won by only 24 votes.
Mansa residents accused him of neglecting them.
The legislator was distributing desks at Mansa Primary School and open a dormitory for Mansa Secondary School. The dormitory was built using the National Government Affirmative Action Fund.
Trouble started minutes after he arrived.
Local leader Mude Hussein said the MP rarely visited and listened to their problems. He said the legislator had been prioritising the other three wards.
Residents also alleged favouritism in the awarding contracts in the constituency.
"We only see you visiting other areas to initiate development projects and distributing bursary cheques,” Hussein told the MP.
Efforts by the first-time MP to calm the irate residents failed as the crowd surged around him. They then started pelting him with stones and insulting hm.
Reservists and the MP's security detail shot in the air.
The MP has whisked away and the lorry carrying the donated desks was driven off as residents threatened to burn it and the desks to ashes.
The MP did not reply to texts; when he finally picked he promised to call back but did do so.
Bashane narrowly won the seat on a PDR ticket, beating Idriss Abdi of Jubilee by 24 votes. He got 6,836 while the latter garnered 6,812.
The constituency has four wards — Tarbaj, Elben/Mansa, Wargud and Sarman.
(Edited by V.Graham)
