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Citizen Weekly

Sunday 22 February 2015

Infighting rears ugly head in Nyamira

Political intolerance in Nyamira county resurfaced at a funeral ceremony when the county senator Okongo Mongare and the county women rep Alice Chae were humiliated in public when angry mourners insulted and heckled them forcing them to cut short their condolence messages.
The two found themselves on the receiving end when they were given a chance to give their message of condolence to the family and relatives of former retired undersecretary the late Cyrus Nyamato at his Nyansiongo home when the crowd turned chaotic and wild accusing the two of being political failures and unproductive to the county and therefore they should not be given chance to address them.
Mongare, three days  prior to the incident, had also been subjected to another ugly incident at Konate area which is along Nyamira-Kebirigo road where he narrowed escaped lynching when he stormed a site where a prominent business man is putting up a petrol station and made an attempt to stop its construction .
The guards of the businessmen confronted the senator and demanded an explanation as to why he was trespassing to a private land and sensing that the group was baying for his blood, he ducked into a hired vehicle and speed off towards Nyamira town where he had a breathing moment at a hotel.
Chae who tried to force her way to speak against the wishes of the mourners suffered more humiliation when the mourners rose from their seats, shouted her down before demanding for her exit from the burial before other programmes continued.
The mourners loudly accused Chae of abusing them that they were beggars and yet they are the people who gave her the mandate to the position she was now using to abuse them.
Mongare was also meant to sit down by the irate mourners who accused him of being a big impediment when it comes to development matters in the county by taking much of his time undermining the governor instead of working with him closely in spreading development of the county.
Mongare who is a relative to the late Nyamato had a rude shock when mourners told him to his face that he was a liability to the county and advised him to use  the salary and allowances he was getting wisely in the name of a senator from their county as his contract could not be renewed come 2017.
Dignitaries attending the funeral among them MPs Ben Momanyi, James  Gesami, Mary Otara, senator Janet Ong’era, Charles Nyachae and Narc Kenya party leader Martha Karua watched in disbelief as the two leaders were humiliated by their own subjects.
They bitter mourners  lamented that since the two were given the mandate, they have never participated in any development which is meant to assists them but were spending a lot of their time undermining  governor John Nyagarama and members of the county assembly who have made a mark in development.
The mourners later called for the scrapping of the two positions of the senator and the women rep which they said that their creation was a waste of public funds.
Members of the county assembly led by the leader of the minority Jackson Mogusu who witnessed the incident, said the community was tired of leaders who were not performing but were using the mandate given by the public in making their own fortunes.

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