Reports Leo Odera Omolo In Kericho Town.

The most interesting political scenario expected during the forthcoming general election will be the character of people contesting for the lucrative position of governor in the rich tea land region of Kericho.

Kericho County is located in the heart of Kipsigis sub-tribe of the larger Kalenjin ethnic group. This is the region which produces close to 75 per cent of all the tea produced in Kenya.

The region is agriculturally rich and produces other cash crops such as coffee, cut-flowers, maize, vegetables, bananas, pyrethrum, English potatoes, coffee, beans and vibrant dairy industries.

Kericho district previously had three parliamentary seats, but Parliament has since endorsed the new extra parliamentary seats which were proposed by the disbanded Boundaries Commission which was led by the former Vihiga MP Andrew Ligale.

In the new et up under the new constitutional dispensation, two more parliamentary constituencies are to be created in Sigowet in the Southwest of Kericho Town formerly part of the older Belgut constituency. The new constituency will cover areas like Soliat, Kibeneti, Sondu, Sigowet, Kapsarok and all the areas bordering Nyando and Nyakach districts in Nyanza.

The incumbent MP is Charles Keter who has represented the area for two terms ever since he dethroned his brother –in-law Charles Kirui a former Finance Minister in 2002. Keter is married to Kirui’s younger sister

The second seat will be based at KIpkellion West covering areas like Chilchila, Kunyak, Koru and Fort-Tennan in areas bordering Nyando district. The larger Kipkellion parliamentary constituency is currently represented in parliament by the truthful politician Magerer Lang’at who is an Assistant Minister for Energy.

The big guns said to be rearing to go for the position of the county governor included the former Minister for Water Development Eng. Kipng’eno Arap Ng’eny, who was once a one term Ainamoi MP and a former Postmaster General during the reign of the retired President Daniel Arap moi.

Also said to be in the race is Joel Kiru the youthful politician-cum-businessman. Kirui is the younger brother of the former Finance Assistant Miister Charles Krui.He hails from Kibeneti and he is an accountant by profession. He has vast business interest in London and Kericho as well as farm in Kipkellion.

Other are the incumbent Belgut MP Charles Keter, Jonah Keter a former manager with Cateress Levy Trustee, and member of the Tea Board of Kenya.Dr Paul Chepkwony, a senior lecturer at the Moi University, Eldoret who hails from Chepng’obop in Kapcheptororiet in upper part of the Ainamoi constituency,

Also vying for the governorship is the Kericho based business magnate Sammy Chepkwony formerly an accountant with the Brooke Bond Tea Company. He runs chains of businesses in Kericho as well as large tea plantation near Tea Research Foundation of Kenya. He is also the chairman of the Tea Reserch Foundation and also chairman of Kericho town Water and Sanitation Company. {KEWASCO}.

Judging from the big names involved, the battle for the Kericho County governorship promises to be the most bruising and the most difficult to predict the winner. All the personalities involved in this race are people of substantial means and well known characters to the electorate, and therefore only the ballot box will decide who will occupy the most powerful seat in the County after the next year’s elections.

Kericho County politics always rotate around tea farming, the prices of raw green leaves offered to the small-scale farmers by millers, who includes the multinational tea companies and the KTDA.

Also the contentious issue of the allocation of the promised land to the small Talai community {Laibons}living in oblivion state on a piece of Kericho Municipality land where they settled in congestion after returning from Gwassi in the greater Southern Nyanza where they were exiled by the British colonialists in 1934. They were allowed back to rejoin their cousins and relatives in 1962 only after a motion was moved in the colonial Legislative Council by the former Legco Member for Kipsigis the late Dr. Taaitta Araap Towett was accepted by the government. Numbering about 6,000 the Talai were later to be scattered around when those from Nandi were settled in Kapsisiywo in North Nandi district.

Others bought land and settled in the various settlement schemes scattered in the North Rift and South Rift. But about 200 families have remained unsettled ever since 1962 living in small land plots which belong to the Kericho Municiplity in the outskirt of Kericho town ever since 1962 with promises of the past KANU regimes after one another unfulfilled.

Ends