Stanley Shapashina Oloitiptip's Lodge in Loitokitok

Meria

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member
A little background on Oloitiptip.
Oloitiptip was a Minister of Home Affairs and Kajiado South MP

Oloitiptip became an MP during the reign of founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and during the Moi regime he was made the powerful Minister in 1978 after Kenyatta died.
However, by 1982 he was so rich that he bragged he could spend Sh15 million on the wedding of his son and not feel a pinch.
That time he had managed to marry 13 wives and was blessed with 67 children who were living in opulence.
He had also managed to buy himself six cars, bought two big houses and acquired huge pieces of land.
He boasted how independence made him richer and powerful. He was the kingpin of Maasai community.
However, because of his closeness with Njonjo who fell out with Moi in 1982 and was ejected from government, Oloitiptip was targeted by the late dictator.
Moi decided to crash him and by the time he died in January 1985, Oloitiptip was poor and unwanted in political realms.
He had lost wealth, friends and was helpless.
Year before his death his loans were called in by the banks and he was arrested for unpaid taxes which it is said he had cleared but Moi had him jailed.
That set the journey of his downfall which came fast and furious because in less than a year he was in the grave.
His burial was avoided by politicians like a leper.
Historian Charles Hornsby in his book "Kenya, A History Since Independence" says "Not a single MP dared attend his funeral, which was interrupted when his house caught fire in an arson attack".
more pics of the abandoned lodge.
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It's Me Scumbag

It's Me Scumbag

Elder Lister
Meria

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member
Aviator said:
Is Oloitiptip from Oloitoktok?
And is he the owner of TikTok?
Asking for @Ngimanene na Muchere, @Mongrel and other slowly listers.
Click to expand...
let me add this. BTW this yr TBT is back in a big way.
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.
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.
A nother 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.
Essentially a systems man, Oloitiptip got to the apogee of his good fortunes in the early years of the Nyayo Government. As Minister for Local Government, he would publicly praise the government and independence with words to the effect, “Independence is sweet. This Nyayo Government is particularly good. Because of independence and Nyayo, I now live in a twelve-bedroomed house in Lavington.” It would later emerge in public that this was a stolen city council house.
That was in 1980. Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, who had been barred from running in the 1979 Presidential and General Elections, dismissed Oloitiptip as “an avaricious individual” who was “mesmerized with his ill-gotten wealth at the expense of his people.” As Oloitiptip’s fortunes peaked, other Maasai leaders were eclipsed. John Keen, who had featured prominently in the parliamentary probe into J.M. Kariuki’s assassination, was getting steadily marginalized, because of his outspokenness. Justus Ole Tipis, all this time an assistant minister now in this ministry then the other, was a self-effacing phlegmatic individual. He was unflappable to a fault. And that perhaps represented the perception of where those who owned Kenya thought the Maasai should be. They were to be seen and not to be heard; to remain horses that boisterous tribal nouvelle riches like Stanley Oloitiptip could ride to whichever destination they chose.
While Oloitiptip was at the pinnacle of his fortunes, however, you occasionally heard of the Chairman of the Narok County Council. He was a charismatic individual called William Rongorua Ole Ntimamah, a fiery daredevil whom the establishment was keen to tame. He often spoke about Maasai land rights and protection of water towers in the Maasai countryside. He spoke out against charcoal burning in the Mau and of the need to protect the forest. Like John Keen, he wanted the Maasai to take up modernity, while not losing their soul as the Maasai nation. Because of this, the Kanu Government twice barred him from contesting for the Narok Parliamentary seat. The dull natured Ole Tipis was the State’s candidate.
In the fullness of time, Oloitiptip and Ole Tipis separately fell out with the Nyayo Government. They each demonstrated that they could not live without power and went to be with God.
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