• Claims by Lenku taken as 'misguided, misinformed and completely out of the character as far as the Maasai community is concerned'.
• Lenku said he joined the team as “the governor of Kajiado, Maa spokesperson and regional leader for the BBI in the South Rift”.
Image: Kurgat Marindany
Some Maa leaders have denounced Kajiado Governor Joseph ole Lenku over his remarks that the community would back the ‘One Kenya Alliance’.
The alliance was unveiled by four key political leaders on Thursday. They are Baringo Senator Gideon Moi, ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi, Wiper’s Kalonzo Musyoka and Ford Kenya’s Moses Wetang'ula.
Lenku introduced himself as the Maa spokesperson during the unveiling of the political alignment.
The Kajiado county chief said he joined the team as “the governor of Kajiado, Maa spokesperson and regional leader for the BBI in the South Rift”.
“I am happy that the conversation that the President began about uniting the country is gradually coming to pass. I'm grateful my party Jubilee is an integral part of this conversation.”
“The conversation of building bridges to unite Kenyans is what I stand for,” the county chief said.
But his sentiments have ignited reactions from the community leaders who say they are yet to appoint a spokesperson.
Narok North MP Moitalel ole Kenta, Kajiado East’s Peris Tobiko, and Narok Senator Ledama ole Kina said they have no spokesman as the Maasai community. They said Lenku’s move is misguided.
“At no time have the Maasai people decided to put in place a tribal spokesman,” Kenta said.
He added that such an elevation can only be assigned by elected leaders representing counties, constituencies and wards.
Ledama said the governor’s decision is non-consequential and can be best defined as ‘kicks of a dying horse.’
“He is not someone I hold highly in regard to politics. Those are kicks of a dying horse. It is his own decision,” the senator told the Star on Friday.
“He (Lenku) is not a representative of the community. He may want to be or show that he is, but he is not.”
Ledama said it must not be confused that the region is leaning towards the One Kenya Alliance going by the governor’s moves, further affirming that he (Ledama) was in ODM.
“I have always been an ODM member even though sometimes I disagree with some decisions, I fight from within,” he said.
Image: FILE
Tobiko also weighed in that “at no time had the Maasai community sat and come up with a spokesperson.”
“It has not even been in our culture to have a spokesman. We have different age sets which have their different leadership at any one time,” she said.
The lawmaker described the claims by Lenku as “misguided, misinformed and completely out of the character as far as the Maasai community is concerned.”
“It is a very myopic thinking for Lenku, having been elected a governor of a cosmopolitan county that prides itself in representing almost the entire 43 tribes.”
“He wants to downgrade himself to a spokesman, because that is where his thinking can reach.”
Tobiko, who is aspiring to be governor in 2022, said: “When a father decides that out of his 43 children, he only wants to be the father of one, the mother takes charge of all the others.”
“Let Lenku be allowed to be spokesman of one community. I will be the mother of all communities living in Kajiado, including the Maasais.”
“Who will speak for the others? Let Kajiado people remain children of their mother,” the lawmaker said.
In November 2020, a group of elders from the Maa Council drawn from the Nyangusi, Iseuri and Irkitoik age sets named Lenku as the community’s spokesman to replace William ole Ntimama who died in September 2016.
They said the governor’s inauguration as spokesman would follow after the country flattens the Covid-19 infections curve.
The lot said they had given the governor the full mandate to connect the Maa people with the government, assertions which area leaders have since dismissed.