• Sudi said it's incumbent upon leaders within the ruling United Democratic Alliance to steer clear of populist utterances at the expense of service delivery.
• "UDA party, let's have manners, let's have discipline. Let us not be people who just speak meaninglessly," Sudi said while speaking at a UDA function.
Image: SCREENGRAB
Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi has cautioned Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei to tread carefully following his public attacks against Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen.
Sudi said it's incumbent upon leaders within the ruling United Democratic Alliance to steer clear of populist utterances at the expense of service delivery.
"UDA party, let's have manners, let's have discipline. Let us not be people who just speak meaninglessly," Sudi said while engaging UDA Uasin Gishu County Chapter Leadership during Tree Planting Day on Monday.
His remarks came in the wake of a fresh onslaught against Murkomen by the Nandi senator over Saturday's power blackout.
The power outage left the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) without power for almost two hours following a fault at the Ol Karia power station.
Cherargei termed the hitch a show of incompetence on the side of Murkomen, a fellow UDA insider and President William Ruto's ally.
“CS Murkomen came to Nandi County two weeks ago and called me a fool I thought he had finished all the works in the Ministry of Roads & infrastructure! While he was busy insulting me there were no standby generators at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and the airport terminal roofs are leaking massively," Cherargei said via his X handle on Monday.
“JKIA is a steeplechase arena! Waziri wacha aibu ndogo mbele ya wageni fanya kazi! Poleni wageni," he added.
But Sudi termed such utterances as senseless and called on Cherargei to exercise basic decorum.
"Cherargei , sisi kwa hii chama na kwa hii serikali tunataka watu wa kukaa kwa meza na kupanga maneno (Cherargei, in this party and in this government we want people who seat at tables and strategise)" he said on Tuesday.
The MP said the time to play politics is over and what is required of leaders is to work with the government to implement development projects.
He said he was at the forefront in organising press conferences during the pre-election period but now that he is elected, the priority is to ask those in government to deliver on the UDA manifesto.
"I had almost 100 press conferences, but do you think I can do that now? My work is to wake up and look for Murkomen and tell him to work on this road, fix electricity here and there but not about the microphone," he said.
Cherargei and Murkomen first clashed in October over road contracts.
The two on October 27 engaged in a bitter exchange of words with Murkomen strongly criticising the senator for allegedly opposing one of the contractors chosen to pave a road simply because he was not a Kalenjin.
"Cherargei, I want to teach you something. If the President was using a brain like yours, we would not be having the country now. I’m telling you the truth,” Murkomen said in the local Kalenjn dialect.
The CS was speaking during the funeral of the son of Chesumei MP Paul Biego Polo.
He said the government was awarding contracts fairly without room for tribalism.
The senator had in his address to mourners at the same funeral demanded that a contractor from his local community be awarded the road tender.
"I hear that some people are saying that they want to bring people from other communities to be contractors. Give our children the priority of being contractors because if we don't teach our children to be strong contractors, we won't be competitive," he said.
When he stood to speak, Murkomen did not mince his words and told off the senator.
"What about our people whom we have given big contracts owing billions and are in Central and Mombasa? Do you want them to be chased to come home? As your teacher, I have brains and a plan," Murkomen said.