We released Kaunya for installation as spokesman following pleas by elders, clan says.

Teso North MP Dr Oku Kaunya after being installed at Amagoro comprehensive and primary school on Saturday/IMAGE /HILTON OTENYO

Teso North MP Dr. Oku Kaunya’s clan has said it released him for installation as the Iteso community spokesperson in Kenya following pleas by elders from different regions.

Ikaruok Luk'ojim clan chairman Ishmael Orodi said the clan’s role was simply to hand over Kaunya, who is its patron, to the Iteso Council of Elders for installation.

“We’re optimistic that Kaunya will deliver the Iteso community from Egypt to Canaan,” Orodi said at his Amagoro residence, likening the MP to the biblical Moses who was sent by God to free his people from Pharaoh’s regime.

Kaunya was installed on Saturday as the Iteso community spokesperson in Kenya by elders during a ceremony at Amagoro Comprehensive School in Malaba Central Ward.

However, the Iteso Cultural leader, Emorimor Papa Paul Sande Emolot, and the entire Iteso Cultural Union (ICU) snubbed the event.

The ICU, which advises the King, had opposed Kaunya’s inauguration, terming it an attempted coup against the Emorimor, who is based in Teso, Uganda.

Last Friday, the Malaba Law Courts declined to stop the planned coronation, saying it lacked jurisdiction over the matter.

Veteran journalist Kennedy Epalat and political activist David Masake had moved to court, arguing that the exercise lacked public participation, was opaque, and amounted to an attempt to relocate the Iteso Royal Palace from Soroti in Uganda to Amagoro in Kenya.

Human rights activist Cleophas Okisai said the Iteso community in Kenya ought to have had a spokesperson long ago, following the retirement of the late Oduya Oprong from politics.

“Communal and regional competition for the national cake necessitated the search for an Iteso spokesperson to catch the eye of the president and, by extension, the international community,” Okisai said.

He, however, faulted the manner in which the installation was conducted, including the choice of venue.

“The venue ought to have been the Iteso of Kenya shrine at Kakapel Cultural Centre. What do these missteps mean to Kaunya’s installation? In my view, the event was a mere simulation exercise,” he said.

“It ought to have been a solemn cultural event packaged with cultural rituals. A fresh process to pick the Iteso spokesperson in Kenya awaits the community,” Okisai added.