Ex-chief on 354km trek fundraiser for Kabarnet stadium

A Baringo retired chief has begun a 354km charity walk to Nairobi to raise funds to complete the stalled Kabarnet stadium.

Joseph Malatit Chebii, 61, started his 14-day trek at 6am at his remote Eron home village in Salawa, Baringo Central.

He hopes to meet President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa and Kenya Olympic Committee president Paul Tergat, who is from Baringo.

He also hopes Baringo Senator Gideon Moi and Baringo's other MPs will help — Baringo Central'Joshua Kandie and his Eldama-Ravine counterpart Moses Lessonet.

Chebii said he doesn't have any appointment “because in our Tugen culture, a beggar doesn’t know the time he will knock at the neighbours' door for help."

“However tough the journey, I must complete it so we can complete construction of the stalled stadium," he told the Star as he set off.

There was no ceremony.

“The blessings from my family and the elders are enough,” he said.

“My message to leaders is simple: Please help, join hands and raise funds to complete stalled Kabarnet stadium, it should be world-class," Chebii said.

However, the problem may be more than money. Governor Stanley Kiptis says there's another claim to the land.

Chebii wore a white dustcoat and carried a flag bearing the message ‘Kabarnet Stadium Tuokoe’. He also carried a simple beaded club as he passed through Kabarnet town minutes past 10am.

He was heading to the Marigat-Nakuru-Nairobi highway.

“I will not board any vehicle or accept a ride from a good Samaritan," he said. Despite my old age, I will just be walking along the tarmac road until I reach my destination, Nairobi," Chebii said.

He will start at 7am and end at 5pm every day.

The retired Kimoso sublocation assistant chief who served from 1993 to 2020 said he is on the trek because of his love of his homeland and the people.

“It's so shameful seeing youth going to train in Nakuru and Uasin Gishu counties when we can have our own facilities,” he said.

Chebii is using his Sh30,000 to fund the trip. He added, "I won't mind if someone offers to pay my food and lodging expenses along the way."

He said the stadium was commissioned by former Governor Benjamin Cheboi seven years ago in 2014.

"I guess it's stalled for lack of funds," he said, adding that he doesn't blame anyone.

Governor Stanley Kiptis, however, justified the halt to construction, citing ownership documentation issues. He said people have claimed ownership.

Cheboi’s former officials said the land was already demarcated for a public utility. They said work was 70 per cent complete.

The abandoned grounds and dilapidated stadium attract drinkers of illicit brew, drug users and lovers who leave condoms behind.

Deep trenches around the site are dangerous. One man fell in and died, another was injured. Animals have fallen in and died.

"I will carry on unless the leaders I mentioned or someone else hears my appeal and acts," Chebii said. He won't have time to interact with anyone along the way, he said.

In his younger days, he did some hiking.

"This has nothing to do with physical exercise, he said. "It's purely a patriotic journey to reclaim the glory of my motherland."

(Edited by V. Graham)