By Leo Odera Omolo In Kericho Town

TEXT containing hate messages warning members of the Kipsigis to be aware of the Prime Minister Raila Odinga political machinations and manoeuvres have hit the streets in both Bomet and Sotik towns.

The authors of the short messages {SMS} seemed to be targeting voters not to vote for any parliamentary aspirant sponsored by the ODM as the campaign heightened in the two constituencies where the voters will go to the polls station on September 25.

The two parliamentary by-elections comes in the wake of serious disagreement between the ODM leadership and the MPs representing various constituencies in Kalenjin region over the impending eviction of thousands of communities currently squatting in the controversial Mau Forest Complex, which covers part of the newly created Molo, Narok and Kericho districts.

The voters will go to the polls on the morning of September 25 to elect two new MPs to replace the late Donald Kiprono Kipkalya Kones, the former Roads Minister who at the time of his death was the ODM MP for Bomet. And also to vote for a replacement of Ms Lorna Laboso who was an Assistant Minister in the Office of the Vice President and Ministry of Home Affairs.

The two perished in a grisly aircraft accident in Narok on June 10, when the light plane they were flying in was brought down and crashed in bad weather.

So far a total of 20 parliamentary hopefuls have come forward, and were duly nominated by two Returning Officers posted to the region by the Electoral Commission of Kenya{ECK}’

He hate SMS message were similar to those which fuelled the post-election violence early this year. But this time around the hate message are focused on the impending by-elections, the forthcoming government plan to relocate thousands of illegal squatters in Mau Forest, the majority of who are believed to be members of the Kipsigis community.

An SMS from an unidentified cellphone began circulating and reached many phone users in the middle of last week. It warned Kalenjin MPs against being compromised and accepting the government plan to relocate communities from the Mau Forest.

It purported to be coming from the popular Kalenjin vernacular Kass FDM station, and warns the Kalenjin MPs of the serious consequences of being haunted. It scathingly criticized the Prime Minister Raila Odinga for supporting the government eviction plan in the Mau Forest.

The management of the Kass FM station, however, immediately disowned the hate messages and dismissed them as the work of people with malice intentions. The station, said it has already broadcast a tentative message to its listeners advising them to ignore these messages.

A director of the popular Kalenjin station Mr. Phillip Meli was quoted by the newspaper columns ealier in the week as saying that the police had also been alerted and were already actively investigating the source of the hate mesdsages.

Another Nairobi daily, THE STAR, had quoted the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information Dr. Bitange Ndemo who confirmed that the Ministry was working with the police in a concerted effort tom track down the culprits.

There is a police team that is helping the Ministry on that and they can easily track the authors,” said the PS

The authors of the hate text message, according to the PS, have, however devised a way of concealing their phone identity and that of the organization they are representing only to send the hate message to a multitude of phone users in the country.

But some of the level minded Kalenjin leaders interviewed expressed fear that such mischievous hate message could easily spark off another round of communal hatred and violence, wanted the government to institute a thorough investigations to unearth the motive behind such uncalled for activities which could easily undermined the prevailing peace and tranquility in the country.

A number of the Kalenjin MPs, particularly those from the Kipsigis region have confirmed having received the text. One of them is the outspoken Chepalungu ODM MP Isaac Ruto , who of lately has been in the forefront in opposing Mau Forest eviction. He said he was aware of the text, but described then as the work of a few malicious individuals.

“ have not received it myself, but there is someone who gave me the message. I tried to call back the number, but there was no reply,” said the MP.

Many residents of both Bomet and Sotik constituencies are said to have received the hate text messages advising them not to vote for the ODM nominees, but only to choose the individuals among the men and women contesting the byt-elections on their merit and personality cult and to go with those of high integrity and political dynamism.

One Kericho politician accused the ODM of resorting to women as its candidates, and yet the woman are weak and cannot withstand the heat of Kenya politics, especially in the future.

The future of politics in this country would be sailing in a very rough terrain and need only brave men to withstand the heat, but not women, said the Kericho politician Kipkemoi Arap Kettienya, adding that there is something wrong with the ODM and wondered why the party was only interested in weak candidates in the Kipsigis region.

)On the ground the camnpaign in both Bomet and Sotik expected to be on top gear this week with the expected tour of the region by party bigwigs to drum up the support of their candidates.

ODM top brass officials are expected, while the leaders of UDM and KANU are also expected to be on the ground as the campaign reached its top gear. It was, however made clear as to whether the besieged KANU national chairman Mr.Uhuru Kenyatta would also make an appearance to boost the candidature of his party. KANU .

The party of independence has sponsored one candidate for each of the two constituencies, the most prominent by Nick Salat, who is reported to be doing extremely well against the populist Mrs Kones in Bomet. It has Mrs Eunice Kirui in Sotik.

ODM’s Secretary General Prof. Anyang’ Nyong”o and other party luminaries are expected to pitch camps in the region in the coming week. It is still not yet known whether the Prime Minister would also join the ODM campaign team. But taking into account the high profile campaign which is taking place one can only expect Raila Odinga to be on a visiting card.

Part of the UDM campaign team led by the Mzee Nathaniel Chebelyon are already on the ground in Sotik. The party leader Lt. Gen{rtd}John Koech and the Secretary General Francis Ole Kamwaro are expected in both Bomet and Sotik this week.

UDM candidate Brigadier {rtd}Alexander Sitienei is reported to have already taken an early lead against ODM’s Dr. Joyce Laboso, the elder sister of the late Lorna Laboso.

Brig. Sitienei campaign team are exploiting the fact that Dr. Laboso is married to a Luo man and therefore belonged to that community and as such cannot come back to reclaim political leadership in Kiposigis land.

Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

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Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2008 07:54:24 -0700 (PDT)
From: Leo Odera Omolo
Subject: ANTI-ODM HATE MESSAGES AND LEAFLETS HIT THE GROUND IN BOMET AND SOTIK CONSTITUENCIES AHYEA OF THE BY-ELECTIONS AS THE AUTHORS TARGET RAILA AND PARTY CANDIDATES.