Finally the body of the former MP for Malava Peter Soita Shitanda has arrived at Kakamega airstrip in Kakamega County from Nairobi.
The body was received by Kakamega County Governor Wycliffee Ambetsa Oparanya among other leaders from Western region.
The body will be taken to Kakamega Approved School for general viewing thereafter be taken in his home in Butali Malava sub county.
Soita passed on on Tuesday 24th May 2016 while receiving treatment in Nairobi hospital
Before his death he was serving as the Agricultural Development Corporation Chairman (ADC).
Shitanda won the parliamentary seat for Malava Constituency in 1997 on FORD Kenya ticket for the first time where he was re-elected in 2002 on NARC ticket and also served as an assistant minister in the office of the president.
He was appointed as the minister for Housing in 2005 in the cabinet reshuffle and later re-appointed in the same docket in 2007 when he was re-elected in the parliament.
In 2013 he absconded NARC party and joined United Democratic Forum Party (UDF).
He vied for governorship seat for Kakamega County in 2013 but lost to the then governor Wycliffe Oparanya.
The opposition’s leaning Kakamega government and the national government have been fighting for control of the funeral and offering to finance it to endear themselves to the area’s votes come 2017 general elections.
The national government paid Shitanda’s hospital bills amounting to Ksh 5 .5 million and also hired the plane that ferried his body to Malava.
Jubilee-friendly MPs and MCA’s from Western last Saturday 28th May raised Ksh. 1.8 million to feed mourners at the funeral.
The Kakamega county government under Oparanya, one of ODM’s deputy party leaders, had declared the funeral a county affair.
It supplied food and hired four catering groups to feed mourners starting 2nd June 2016.
Reports indicate that President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto are likely to attend the funeral to strengthen Jubilee’s support in the area.
Hon. Soita Shitanda will be buried in his Butali rural home on Saturday 4th June 2016.
