Rift Valley regional coordinator George Natembeya should apologise to the Kipsigis for referring to them as a community that breeds like guinea pigs, an MP has said.
Emurua Dikir MP Johana Ngeno described Natembeya as a civil servant who has gone astray and failed in his administrative duties of protecting the people.
Speaking in Kericho town on Sunday, the Narok county politician expressed dismay that the regional commissioner referred to the Kipsigis as a community that does not value education.
“Let Natembeya quit his civil service role and join politics as he has not yet learned his administrative duties. The Kipsigis community cannot be equated to rats or guinea pigs as Natembeya was quoted as referring to them,” Ng'eno said.
He told Natembeya to get a Kipsigis language dictionary to understand the meaning of Kipsigis, whose translation, he said, means to bring forth as many children as one can.
“Even in the Bible, God told mankind to go out there and multiply. Natembeya is yet to know that,” the MP said.
Natembeya was still frustrating the Kipsigis by threatening to evict them from Mau forest, land the community acquired legally right from the colonial government through the regimes of Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki, Ng'eno said.
He said the Mau forest where the Kipsigsis face frequent eviction was de-gazetted several times by the colonial government and the three presidents to create room for Kipsigsis settlement but Natembaya was trying to pretend he was not aware.
Ng'eno said 90 per cent of Mau forest lies in Kalenjin territory and it would be a human rights violation for Natembeya to issue eviction orders against the Kipsigis.
Edited by Henry Makori
