DR. TAAITTA ARAAP TOWEETT
Towett was at the the editor of Quarterly government published venarcular magazine in Kipsigis dialect Ngalek Ap Kipsigisiek.The magazine ceased publication when Elisha Arap Towett was transferred to Nandi district in the same capacity the following year.
He was Kenya's minister for education in the 1970s. He also participated in the writing of the first Constitution at Lancaster as a KADU delegate.
In the 1960-1961 Towett formed what was Christened Kalenjin Political Alliance Party which later become allied to KADU.This time he stood against Mista Mista Araap Korir (KANU) and the late Barmalel Tamason (Independent) He won with the record majority of votes of 58,491 to represent the entire Kipsigis community in the Legco.
KANU won more seats in the Legco, but its leaders the late Samuel Gichuru ,Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and Tom Mboya who were invited to take part in a newly formed government with Governor of Kenya Sir Patrick Muir Renson flatly refused to participate in the government on condition that Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and other nationalist who were then languishing in colonial jails and restriction camps in Nothern Kenya were unconditionally released.
Ngala,Moi ,Muliro and Towett accepted the invitation and formed minority transitional government and were made ministers
Towett was born a mixture of Kipsigis and Kisii blood.His late father Mzee Arap Maero who died ten years ago aged about 120 originally came from Mokomoni area of North Mugirango in Kisii where he and his younger brother were seized and captured by a group of Kipsigis morans who had gone out on cattle rustling expedition in Kisii region.
Soon after independence Dr. Toweett shocked the nation when he suddenly resigned from otherwise then safe Buret Constituency seat. This happened when KADU leaders Ngala, Moi and Muliro resolved to dissolve the opposition party in the interest of national unity and joined hands with KANU.
Toweett thought otherwise. He went ahead to consult and sought confirmation of the electorate if he would switch to KANU by abandoning KADU a party whose members had voted him into parliament in 1963.He resigned in huff blaming his colleagues in KADU for killing democracy in Kenya.
He then went home and sought for fresh mandate from the electorate in the by-election that followed Mr. Toweett lost his Buret seat to Mr. Alexander Arap Rai a former primary school teacher but he recaptured it in 1969.
It was while Towett was serving as Land and Physical Planning Ministers when he told a mammoth crowd of Kipsigis who had besieged him at a public rally at Sosiot in Belgut when he made his now famous remarks saying that ‘’Those who want free land should go to and settles in Sahara Desert, because there was plenty of unused land in the desert.
Towett married his first wife the late Mama Rachel Chemibei from Chebwon area of Belgut in 1952.
Towett later married another young beautiful girl called Rachel with whom they lived at his Sotik farm. He also bought a farm at Kokwet in the Londiani area where he became the first black farmer among the White settlers.
He later married his third first wife Elizabeth from Nandi and eventually married Anne (Mama Nigeria ) from Sabaot or Sebei whom he settled in Ngomwet farm in Keleges near Awasi -Muhoroni area. His first wife Rachel died and was buried at his first home near Kericho . The second wife Rachel was buried at his Sotik farm which is located next to the KCC milk plant.
The veteran politician had a total of 31 children and had homes in Kericho town,Kamurei near Kiplong Sotik,Chomosot,Ngomwet and near Ngata farm in Nakuru before finally establishing another home at Darajani near Nakuru town. He died when he was in the process of building a rural home on a piece of land near Litein his birthplace.
Unfortumately the son of the former veteran politician and Education Minister, the late Dr. Taita Towett who is living in abject poverty has appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to come to his rescue.
David Kipngetich Towett, 58, who attended the prestigious St Mary’s Primary School in Nairobi together with President Uhuru Kenyatta hopes that the President will retrieve him from the hell of poverty he is currently in which will in turn enable him offer a decent life to his eight children some who have dropped out of school due to lack of school fees.
