Businessman tells MP Cheptumo to be ready for defeat in 2022

A  Mombasa-based businessman Jonathan Tokei has declared his interest in the Baringo North MP seat.

As 2022 election politics shapes up, Tokei said he plans to wrest the seat from MP William Cheptumo, who is serving his third term.

"I'm already doing more developments using my personal meagre resources as compared with Cheptumo who has been seating on billions of the National Government Constituency Development Fund," he said on Wednesday.

 and twin waterfall in Ossen-Kabartonjo ward.

"I heard the cliff has claimed over 10 lives in the past, prompting me to personally intervene and fence it off," he said.

He had also equipped a 2.4 million maternity wing at Kasisit dispensary and built several cattle dips, churches and access roads, and repaired dilapidated mud-walled classrooms.

Tokei accused Cheptumo of failing residents, citing several dilapidated classrooms in primary and secondary schools, poor roads and water scarcity.

"I'm not doing all this for competition. I'm only challenging him [Cheptumo] to stop concentrating too much on national politics and to, instead, focus on improving the livelihoods of his people at the grassroots because that is the core mandate he was elected for," he said.

He also accused Cheptumo of misappropriating public resources, saying he will soon expose the CDF projects whose funds have been squandered.

"We cannot continue sitting back and watching when a small classroom costing about Sh500,000 is being constructed for Sh2 million," he said.

"The majority of people of Baringo North are illiterate and ignorant. Cheptumo has been taking advantage all this long to suppress them. Enough is enough."

But on Thursday, Cheptumo dismissed his opponent as a loudmouth who is busy spending his dubiously-earned cash.

"Somebody cannot just wake up one day and say he is my shadow or co-MP, yet he knows vividly that even a co-car driver should be having a well-satisfied driving licence," he told Star by phone.

Cheptumo, an ally of DP William Ruto, will be seeking a fourth term. He, however, faces hard political times ahead. In 2017, he retained the seat after winning by a small margin, beating former Barwessa MCA Joseph Makilap by just 30 votes.

He won a court petition against his victory. Makilap was recently appointed as the development coordinator of the North Rift Region Economic Bloc.

(Edited by F'Orieny)