Ogiek elders unveil choice of Senator Prengei's successor

Leaders and elders from the Ogiek community have fronted Mr John Samorai Lengoisa to replace late nominated Senator Victor Prengei.

Led by Mr John Sironga of the Ogiek Council of Elders, they asked the ruling Jubilee Party to nominate Mr Lengoisa, a resident of the Eastern Mau Forest in Nakuru, to take the place of the late legislator.

The senator died in a grisly car crash on the Nakuru-Kabarak road last month.

“As leaders from the Ogiek community, together with the family of the late Victor Prengei, we held a meeting on Saturday and unanimously agreed to back Mr Lengoisa. We appeal to President Uhuru Kenyatta to approve him to serve the remaining ten months,” said Mr Sironga.

Mr Lengoisa, 35, has a degree in medical records from Kenyatta University and is a programme officer at a local Non-Governmental Organisation.

“As elders from the Ogiek community, we have confidence in Mr Lengoisa ’s capacity to fit in the shoes of the late Prengei...We are confident he will champion our rights, as a minority group, if nominated,” added Mr Sironga.

The leaders also dismissed a section of the Ogiek community that last week endorsed Nakuru Jubilee Party Secretary General Peter Cheruiyot for nomination to the Senate.

Cheruiyot, 40, was elected Nakuru Jubilee branch secretary ahead of the 2017 General Election and has remained a fierce supporter of the party in the region.

During the funeral service of the late senator, various leaders and members of the Ogiek community asked the Jubilee Party leadership to consider nominating a member of the community as his replacement. 

Prengei, who made history as the community's first legislator, died aged 37.