Former MP kills wife, self after domestic row

By Allan Olingo

Former Turkana South MP Francis Ewaton Achuka allegedly committed suicide after killing his wife in his rural home in Turkana yesterday morning. Neighbours, who called police, said they discovered the former legislator’s body in his house alongside his wife’s.

Both Ewaton’s body and that of his wife had bullet wounds.

Police confirmed the incident and said they were at the scene of the incident, which was reported at 9am yesterday. The former MP was a licensed gun holder.

Turkana South OCPD John Bosco Muutu said he could not comment on the incident, but referred The Standard to the Rift valley Provincial Police Officer, who was at the home. “We are aware the incident  happened at 7am and the bodies are in the house,” he said, but refused to give more details.

According to family sources, the two had a domestic tussle before the incident.

The former MP had held the seat on a Kanu ticket from 1992 to 2007, when he lost to the current Member of Parliament, Josephat Nanok.

Police say they are yet to establish the motive of the incident. It took place at the former MP’s Lokichar village.

In his lifetime, controversy seemed to follow Ewaton. In May 2005, while he was still MP for Turkana South, Ewaton had an exchange with a parking attendant in Kitale when he refused to pay Sh100 parking fee for his lorry.

Park for free His lorry had been parked outside a hotel and when the parking attendant requested him to pay, he refused saying that he had privileges that allowed him to park for free.

“You people do not like legislators from Turkana. You should respect me,” he charged as he wrestled the attendants who tried to clamp his vehicle.

It took the intervention of the then Kitale Mayor James Sifuna to ease the stand-off, when Sifuna offered to pay the parking fee on behalf of the MP.

In July 2006, the the MP shocked the Parliament when he resigned from the House Catering Committee to protect what he claimed was his honour and that of his tribesmen.

“A Turkana man doesn’t know where the kitchen is. He does not care either. It is not because of being nomadic, but my community hardly boasts of kitchens to talk about,” he argued.

Ewaton had wondered how Parliament could nominate him to a committee that by the virtue of its title seemed preoccupied with kitchen matters.

As an MP, Ewaton was a lone ranger who used to sneak in un-noticed and settle in a lonely corner on the opposition side.

At one time during debate, in his usual manner, he quietly came in and sat in a corner, but had forgotten to switch off his phone. During debate, the phone rang, and it was obvious he hated the attraction it attracted. He reached for his pocket in a mad frenzy and quickly bent over to switch it off. He, however, put the phone in his socks to the amusement of his colleagues.

In 2001, Kapenguria legislator Samuel Moroto and his Kacheliba counterpart Information Minister Samuel Poghisio threatened to evict Ewaton, claiming his rural home in Lokichar was in Pokot. But it was just a threat.

In April 2004, Ewaton was named among serving legislators who had least contributed in the House.

The few times he spoke, Ewaton was passionate about the plight of his people. Matters to do with their security and infrastructure were close to his heart. At one time, he said the road to Kainuk was so bad every time he used it, he expected Pokot raiders to kill him.

In 1996, Ewaton was charged with inciting his kinsmen against the Pokot, but refused to sign the bond form that had, among other conditions, required him to maintain peace for a year because he didn’t “understand anything that had been written there.”