Heritage Minister Williamole Ntimama who served as the NarokNorth MP since 1988 is among the Cabinet Ministers who have lost their seats as results of the just concluded General Election continue to stream in.
Ntimama (ODM), who has been a self proclaimed Maasai community spokesperson for a period spanning 22 years, was trounced by a Nairobi based lawyer Moitalel Kenta who vied the seat on TNA ticket.
Kenta who lost to Ntimama in the 2007 General Election got 22, 806 votes while the incumbent got 20, 473 in a hotly contested polls. A US scholar Meitamei Dapash came a distant third with 7, 895.
Ntimama whose word was law since he defeated the late Justus ole Tipis, then a powerful State Minister in charge of Internal Security in the controversial Mlolon’go (queuing) system during the kanu single party state was absent when the poll results were announced by the area Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) coordinator Mohammed Raka Wednesday morning.
Members of his family, relatives and friends who had earlier thronged the Maasai Mara University hall, the centre of the parliamentary seat tallying, left one after another when the results from most polling stations gave his competitor big margin were being read out.
After the 2002 General Election, Ntimama indicated that he was going not going to defend his seat and asked his community to sit and pick a successor who would defend their rights as he had been doing.
But many including his supporters were surprised when he offered himself for re-election in 2007. Shorty after he won on ODM ticket he was categorical that he was tired and would not defend his seat this year.
“His decision to defend the seat in this General Election with hindsight that his daughter Lydia Masikonde was also vying the Narok County Women Representative seat was ill informed. He could have left politics to give his daughter a chance to succeed. If he did that he could not be facing the embarrassment he is now facing,” says Jackson Saika, the chairman of Maasai Professionals Association.
Kenta promised to unite different communities in the constituency and asked the constituents to accord Ntimama respect as he leaves the political stage.
“My first mission is to bring different communities together. We should respect Ntimama as he walks to his retirement,” he said of his political nemesis who before became an MP was once a powerful Narok county council chairman.
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