When former Cabinet minister Stanley Oloitipitip learnt prisons don’t have beds

Former Cabinet Stanley Oloitiptip during a public function. [PHOTO: file/STANDARD]

By KENNETH KWAMA

KENYA: Former Cabinet minister and Maasai kingpin, Stanley Oloitipitip, was a big man – both in the literal sense and politically.

As you would expect of a person his size, legend had it that he had a big appetite too. However, his knowledge was scanty and was always prone to buffoonery.

 Up until June 1984, the late Oloitipitip did not know that in Kenyan prisons there were no beds. He was to get the rude awakening after he was sentenced to 12 months in prison for failing to pay hotel accommodation tax in respect of a boarding house he owned in Loitokitok, in then Kajiado District.

Oloitipitip asked the presiding magistrate to be told whether there were beds in prison.

 He was duly informed that he would find out ‘when he gets there’. One of his former prison mates at Kamiti told Drum magazine what happened immediately the man who was one billed the most massive Cabinet minister in the world arrived at the facility.

 The first problem was that they had no uniform to fit him. Five prisoners were then asked to donate their shirts, which were cut up and made into Oloitipitip’s one prison shirt.

Demanded blankets

Another five inmates had to surrender their trousers to provide the material for his trousers. But the ‘big’ man was not done.

 “That night, Oloitipitip demanded a pillow and several blankets. But it was then he discovered that there is one place in Kenya where former Cabinet ministers, pickpockets or Nairobi beggars are equal and that is prison,” reported the magazine.

 According to reports, the Maasai kingpin was denied homely comfort for a night.

He also boycotted his supper. When the prison warders came and shouted ‘kaba’ (squat), Oloitipitip, not surprisingly, was the only prisoner who could not do it because of his gigantic size.

 After a night at Kamiti, he was granted bail pending appeal, but before the case could be settled, Oloitipitip died at the home of a leading Maasai witchdoctor on January 22, 1985, near Loitokitok.

 Although not much is known about what had transpired at the witchdoctor’s quarters to lead to his death, legend had it that even as Oloitipitip’s health continued to deteriorate, his appetite remained intact.

He is said to have devoured the medicine man’s chickens and goats with such ravenousness that his hosts started getting worried if they could keep up with his huge appetite.

 “He had left hospital against the instructions of the doctors and before leaving had signed a certificate to the effect that he was leaving on his own volition and that he was not being discharged. One of his sons countersigned. That did it. Oloitipitip who claimed to be a Christian put his family in an embarrassing situation,” reported Drum.

 This made it difficult for a Christian clergy to preside over his burial. He was nonetheless buried. Today, one of his trademark initiatives – Moi Girls School Isinya still remains standing. He mooted and spearheaded the idea of girls’ secondary school at Isinya in 1980.