Shocked leaders cry out for protection
MPs abandoned a peace meeting at Parliament Buildings following the killing of Ainamoi MP, David Kimutai Too.
There was confusion in Parliament as MPs walked out of the meeting shouting. Bureti MP, Mr Franklin Bett, said: “How many more are police and thugs going to kill? We are not going to allow this lawless state of affairs.” Bett said the Amani Forum of Inter-Parties Parliamentary Group suspended its meeting over post-election violence following the MP’s death.
Bett told The Standard that the MPs were shocked over the death of another MP only two days after the shooting to death of Embakasi MP, Mugabe Were. “This is a sad state of affairs. We cannot continue with a peace meeting when fellow MPs are being killed,” added Bett. He said the meetings would resume after the MPs had debated the death of Too and received an assurance from the police that action would be taken.
“The police are supposed to protect Kenyans and not misuse guns and kill innocent people,” he said. At the meeting, Kipkelion MP, Mr Magerer Langat, urged the Government to provide adequate security to MPs following the two deaths. Meanwhile, Rift Valley MPs reacted angrily at the way the police were treating Too’s death. The MPs said the Police Commissioner’s assertion that the MP could have been killed because of a love affair gone sour was an insult.
MPs Jason Kiptanui (Keiyo South), Langat, Mr Joshua Kuttuny (Cherangany) and Mr Boaz Keino (Marakwet West) said the police boss should conduct thorough investigations and stop acting on hearsay. Too, they said, had received an SMS on his phone threatening him and said matters of love should not be used to cover his killing. “The MP had received the same SMS that some of our colleagues have received. The police should not joke of the killing,” said Magerer.
Keino showed the Press an SMS he had received threatening him to “keep off somebody’s wife” which he said was calculated at making murders look like they are not politically motivated. Kuttuny said there was a scheme to reduce the ODM MPs in Parliament especially in Rift valley and many more were on line for killing.
East African Standard
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