By Ali Abdi
Former President Moi on Monday drummed up support for Kanu candidates in the forthcoming by-elections.
Moi, speaking at Laisamis in Marsabit District, urged Northern Kenya residents to vote overwhelmingly for Kanu in the polls.
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Former President Moi waves to members of the public during a tour of Laisami in Marsabit, during which he donated drugs and foodstuff through his Moi Africa Foundation. |
The late MPs are Titus Ngoyoni, who represented Laisamis, Dr Bonaya Godana, North Horr, Abdi Sasura, Saku, and Guracha Galgalo, Moyale. All of them had been elected on a Kanu ticket.
Moi told the residents to choose their leaders wisely during the by-elections.
He urged them to remain steadfast in Kanu, saying it was the only party with grassroots support in the country.
“I am a life member of Kanu and I cannot hide my identity. Kanu is the party with grassroots support and without tribal alignments,” he said.
Moi’s remarks seemed to confirm speculations that his philanthropic tour of the region also doubled up as an opportunity to campaign for Kanu candidates in the by-election.
He is accompanied by Kanu national chairman and presidential hopeful, Uhuru Kenyatta.
During the occasion, the former president donated relief food and drugs worth Sh1.1 million through the Laisamis Catholic Church.
He appealed to the residents to co-exist peacefully, saying their MPs perished as they searched for the elusive security in the region.
Moi had earlier been to Isiolo to console the family of the late East African Legislative Assembly MP, Lt Gen Addulahi Aden, who also died in the crash.
He also met some of Ngoyoni’s relatives.
But due to the bad terrain, the former president’s convoy could not proceed 150 kilometres further to Kargi, where the MP was buried.
He promised to meet Ngoyoni’s widow, Mary, later in Nairobi.
Moi, riding in a convoy of mostly four-wheel-drive vehicles carrying a large security detail, has traversed the rough terrain of Isiolo, Samburu and Marsabit districts to console the residents and give them donations.
One of the Range Rover vehicles in his entourage was left behind at a remote police post in Marsabit after breaking down.
Mourning the late leaders, Moi told the residents that it would be difficult to get others like them.
“When people have peace, they are able to focus on development. Your MPs died because of lack of security here,” he reminded them.
Isiolo South MP Abdul Bahari, Isiolo North Kanu secretary Charfano Mokku and Kanu national executive officer Julius Sunguli accompanied Moi.
His hosts in Laisamis were former area MP Robert Kochale and Joseph Lekuton, who is based in the US. The two are eyeing the seat on a Kanu ticket.
Other speakers, who included former Cabinet minister Julius Sunkuli and former Samburu West MP Stephen Lenges, turned the meeting into an election campaign and asked the residents to vote for Kanu.
Sunkuli said security had been better during the Kanu regime “unlike today where people have been left to butcher each other.”
Hundreds of residents braved the hot afternoon sun to cheer the high-powered delegation.
Source: Standard, May 10, 2006
