Former Laikipia North Member of Parliament, Mathew Lekidime Lempurkel, has died while receiving treatment at Kenyatta National Hospital.
Lempurkel had been hospitalised for nearly a week after sustaining critical injuries in a road accident at the Exciting area in Ong’ata Rongai. He was heading home at the time of the crash. Despite efforts by medics, his condition worsened, leading to his death.
The outspoken politician was best known for his strong advocacy on Maa rights. Throughout his career, he championed land rights, cultural preservation, and the protection of pastoralist communities’ way of life.
Lempurkel’s political career was, however, not without controversy. In 2021, he was sentenced to one year in prison for assault, following a 2016 incident in which he was accused of attacking the then Laikipia North MP-elect, Sarah Korere, at Harambee House in Nairobi. Court records at the time stated that Lempurkel “willfully and unlawfully assaulted Sarah Korere by slapping her on the left cheek and kicking her on the lower abdomen, thereby occasioning her actual bodily harm.”
Despite such setbacks, Lempurkel remained a vocal figure within his community, remembered both for his fierce defense of Maa interests and his confrontational approach to politics.
His death marks the end of a turbulent yet impactful political journey for a man whose name resonated strongly in Laikipia and beyond.
