Kipkalya Kones

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about a person who has recently died.

Some information, such as that pertaining to the circumstances of the person's death and surrounding events, may change rapidly as more facts become known. In the event that this article is disruptively edited following the death of the subject, please request administrator intervention on this page.

Kipkalya Kiprono Kones (22 February 1952^[1] – 10 June 2008^[2]) was a Kenyan politician who served as a minister during the 1990s and was briefly Minister of Roads in 2008. He was a member of the National Assembly of Kenya from 1988 to 2008.

Kones won the seat from Bomet Constituency as part of the Kenya African National Union (KANU) in 1988 and then was appointed as Minister of Agriculture by President Daniel arap Moi. He was re-elected in the 1992 election and was appointed by Moi as an Assistant Minister of State in the Office of the President. In the 1997 election he was again re-elected, and Moi appointed him as Minister for Public Works and Housing; he was subsequently moved to the posts of Minister for Research, Science and Technology and Minister for Vocational Training.^[3]

Kones remained a Member of Parliament, this time as a member of the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy, following the 2002 election.^[1] As a member of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), he again won the seat from Bomet in the December 2007 parliamentary election.

Kones was appointed as Minister of Roads in the grand coalition Cabinet, which was named on 13 April 2008 and included both the ODM and the Party of National Unity (PNU);^[4] the Cabinet was sworn in on 17 April.^[5]

He was killed along with Assistant Minister of Home Affairs Lorna Laboso in a plane crash on 10 June 2008.^[2]^[6] The plane crashed into a building in Kajong'a market near Nairagie Enkare in Enoosupukia, Narok District,^[7] near Narok^[2]^[6] and the Masai Mara game reserve.^[6] The plane carrying Kones and Laboso, a Cessna light aircraft, had taken off from Wilson Airport in Nairobi;^[2]^[6]^[7] they had been flying to Kericho in the Rift Valley to help with the organization of logistics for ODM candidate Benjamin Langat in the by-election that was scheduled to be held in Ainamoi Constituency on 11 June.^[7] In addition to Kones and Laboso, the pilot and a security guard were killed.^[6]^[7]

President Mwai Kibaki sent his condolences and ordered flags to fly at half mast, saying that Kenya had "lost leaders of immense potential at their prime age and with a promising future." Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the ODM leader, said that it was a "sad moment"; believing that it was too late to to delay the planned by-elections, he urged ODM supporters to use the by-elections as a tribute to Kones and Laboso by turning out to vote for the ODM's candidates.^[7]