Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah has cited politics as the motive behind his stoning by what he says were hired goons on Friday even as he assured the public that he was fine and well.
Speaking to the press in Busia town, the activist-cum-politician said he was accosted by a group of young men as he left the Busia court and stoned as he drove by.
His vehicle had a window broken, he said, prompting him to run for cover at the nearby Agricultural Training Centre.
“Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. I’m okay and I thank God for life,” he said in a statement on X.
Omtatah linked the attack to his demand for documents from the county government to enable him to execute his oversight role as the senator for Busia County.
He said he went to court after 12 letters he wrote asking for the documents were never responded to.
“I have been denied those documents and I was forced to go to court and the case is ongoing. Today as I left the court, I met a group of youth near the county assembly who started stoning my car,” he said.
“I don’t think this was a case of young men walking and just deciding to stone me. They stoned me because they were sent,” he claimed.
Omtatah said despite the incident, he won’t be cowed until he obtains the documents he is seeking to enable him to exercise his constitutional mandate to oversight county expenditure.
“What is happening is illegal and it will not scare me. I have seen worse than this, I lost seven teeth and had my head stitched so they better know they won’t stop me,” Omtatah said.
The senator said it’s within his right, not just as a senator but as a Kenyan as well, to have unrestricted access to the documents he is asking for.
Omtatah advised the youth in the county to refuse to be used to advance violent politics saying those are not ideologies of a democratic society.
He said the youth in the county stand to benefit the most from his oversight mandate of ensuring county funds are utilised prudently.
“By denying me those documents, it’s like there is something they are hiding. They are trying to intimidate me not to come here but I don’t see how stones will stop me from coming to Busia or going to court,” he said.
“That case will go all the way until the court gives its verdict.”