SUFFERING FOR A CAUSE IN HIS NATIVE COUNTRY

INDEPENDENT-MINDED Mr Fredrick Rono is now leading a quite and peaceful life as a farmer at his land in Trans-Nzoia district, Western Kenya, having led an increasingly turbulent and problematic life, years back during the Daniel arap Moi's administration.

Daniel arap Moi was President of Kenya for 24 years in a protracted characterized by serious allegations of Kleptocracy, nepotism, tribalism, political assassinations and heavy crushing of dissenting opinions by ruthless state agents.

It was during Moi's reign which came to an end in the year 2003, that frightening amounts of money amounting to billions of shillings, were reportedly stashed away in foreign accounts by Moi's henchmen, in a greedy and inhuman move that propelled these sycophants to prodigious wealth,with negative repercussions on the economy that was left pathetically dilapidated.

Ex-civic leader Fredrick Rono who had been a champion of the interests of the Nandi community-which Moi detested, was a marked man during the past regime, and often found himself on the wrong side of the law owing to his outspokenness on issues affecting the community that had been marginalized by the previous powers.

He had also endered himself to great Nandi heroes, among them the late Anglican bishop Alexander Kipsang Muge and the former minister for Agriculture Kipruto arap Kirwa, who had been identified as critics of the Moi Government.

Rono served as councilor for the Kibomet ward in the Kitale municipality from 1992 to 2002.

He had also endeared himself to the firebrand lady politician Philomena Chelagat Mutai, who was a former Member of parliament for Eldoret North for nearly a decade, after having been elected to parliament at the tender age of 24.

Rono, who was noted as a courageous and firm politician during his heydays, had also been in the forefront of a crusade to declare Nandi heroes believed to have perished in mysterious circumstances, as martyrs.

These leaders included Bishop Muge who died in a bizarre road accident in 1990 on the Eldoret/Turbo road as he was returning to his base in Eldoret town, after a controversial but triumphant visit to Busia.

Others were the late fiery member of parliament for Tindiret constituency Jean – Marie Seroney, the Late Mosop legislator Robert Tanui and Nandi Catholic priests Tom K. Leley and Michael K. Toror, who both died in a mysterious road accident on July 26 1992.

Ex-councilor Rono championed a crusade for their 'martyrdom´ with vigour and vitality, inspired by the desire to have the truth known about their questionable deaths.

Many a times he maintained that the departed Nandi heroes should be immortalized.

Once during a critical point in the Nandi political history, amid a painful likelihood of losing the controversial EATEC farms that were in the hands of greedy Kalenjin Political sharks, a working committee of 15- persons of which Rono was a member, was formed.

EATEC stands for the East African Tanning Extract Company-a subsidiary group of the multi-million-shilling international Lonhro firm.

The committee was tasked with clamoring for the erection of monuments in honour of the late Muge, Seroney, Tanui, Catholic father´s Leley and Toror, as well as Chelagat Mutai.

The 15-member committee had also been given the onus of writing a book on Nandi resistance to British colonial rule, the post-independent Kenyatta Regime and on the Moi era, comparing and contrasting the intensity of harshness meted out and the respective gains, if any.

It was Rono´s contention that had the Nandi´s who formed about 30 percent of Kalenjin's denounced the uniting umbrella, then the entire community would be tottering towards disintegration as Moi´s era drew to a close.

The designation "Kalenjin" was coined by late veteran politician Dr. Taitta Towett while at the Alliance High school. It incorporates about 10 sub-tribes who share a similar language, with little variation in dialect and common culture.

According to Rono, the Nandi name "was the most mis-used", and the community was likely to be the target of condemnation by other tribes who thought that Moi was a "Mnandi" when he was actually a Tugen.

Moi was from the Kalenjin tribe which encompassed various sub-ethnic tribes but he was not from the Nandi community.

Rono had told the press that the deliberations of the 15-member think- tank committee of which he was an active member, also centered on unearthing the originality of former influential Kanu power broker Mark Too which was said to be scanty and hazy as allegations abounded over his lineage.

Mark Too was at the center of the storm and controversy over the infamous EATEC farm sales which raised a running brouhaha in the Nandi Diaspora.

Mark Too was the chairman of the Lonhro group of companies in East Africa and was Moi's errand or "Spanner boy" throughout Kenya, Africa and across the world, despite having very little education.

It was said that Mark Too was being used by Moi to marginalize the Nandi community.

Moi was annoyed by the fact that the community was opposed to his leadership.

As a civic leader representing Kibomet ward in the Kitale civic authority, Rono made a lot of noise over widespread allegations of corruption and embezzlement of funds in the row-hit Kitale municipality.

And he made a lot of enemies as a result of blowing the whistle on graft.

As a critical Kalenjin who had moved into the civic office, he was regarded with suspicion by pro-Moi Kanu stalwarts.

At some stage in his life as a councilor, he was arrested by the police and arraigned at the Kitale Law courts on charges of torching the local Kanu office.

However, he was lucky to be acquitted for lack of evidence. During a recent lengthy interview with this writer, Rono said he was illegally confined in the cells and taken to court on "trumped-up charges" that were precipitated by his opposition to corruption and Moi's policies.

At the advent of multi-party politics in 1992, Rono was arrested eight times for joining the opposition, since the Moi's government viewed Kalenjins who were refusing to toe the line as traitors.

The former civic leader says he was seriously tortured and accused of betraying Moi by security agents for establishing rapport with the opposition.

"The security officers who were extracting information from me under duress, seemed to have been taught that their number one enemy was me, and hence the harsh and inhuman treatment", Rono charged, while shaking his head sadly, as his mind reached back to recall the dark past.

On July 25, 1992, he was charged with alleging that Moi had ´eaten´ (read stolen) the Kitale bus park collections. The case number was listed as 811788/92.

Again,lady luck smiled on Rono after he was acquitted for lack of evidence in the case that weighed heavily on him and attracted immense curiosity from the public.

The former civic leader claims that he was tortured by Special branch officers who accused him of having a penchant for attacking Moi.

"Then multi-party politics was introduced, and I knew Moi´s powers had been reduced. I was fighting for a situation whereby the Kalenjins should not be stigmatized, but should be in harmonious co-existence with other Kenyans," recalls Rono.

He added matter-of-factly: "I was against Moi because he marginalized the Nandi community and their heroes. His kind of leadership should never return to the land!"

Touching on the politics of the day, Rono is stoutly opposed to the management and leadership style of Agriculture minister William Ruto.

"Ruto should resign for grossly mismanaging agriculture. He is a big let-down", the ex-councilor charged.

He, at the same time, threw his weight behind clergymen who recently told president Kibaki and Prime minister Raila Odinga to their faces that they had betrayed Kenyans.

Even though he has retired from politics, Rono still speaks out freely when necessary. He is now a church elder at Kibomet Catholic Church in Trans-Nzoia district.

Fredrick Rono was born in 1953 in Nandi district, near Kapsabet town at a place called Kaplamai.

Then he migrated to Mosop in Kimngoror in 1958. He later shifted to Trans-Nzoia district with his family members in 1970.Kimngoror was the birth place of the late Bishop Muge.

Drawn from a notably pious family, Rono was educated in Nandi district primary and secondary schools.