Former Laikipia North MP Lempurkel dies after road accident

Former Laikipia North MP Mathew Lempurkel has passed on a week after he was involved in a road accident, his family confirmed on Sunday.

Lempurkel was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a Nairobi hospital with critical injuries from last week's crash in Ongata Rongai, Kajiado County. 

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, whose Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) Lempurkel was a member of, mourned the former MP as a dedicated public servant.

“He has departed, but his legacy will live on in our hearts,” Gachagua wrote on X.

Lempurkel served as MP in the eleventh Parliament from 2013 to 2017 under an ODM party ticket.

In November 2023, he ditched ODM for President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance, before joining DCP, which Gachagua formed in the wake of his October 2024 impeachment after falling out with Ruto.

The MP was a vocal advocate for the Maa community, especially on issues of land rights.

But he was also in and out of the courts several times. In November 2021, he was sentenced to one year in prison for slapping and kicking his successor, Sarah Korere, in November 2016 at the office of the late former Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery in Nairobi.

In 2022, he was charged in a separate case where he was accused of uttering inciteful remarks on TV.

Lempurkel’s “abusive and threatening” words towards one of the communities in Laikipia were believed to have caused ethnic hatred in the county.