Wetang’ula urges Ong’ondo Were’s family to shun social media as burial draws near
National Assembly speaker Moses Wetang’ula has urged the family of the late Kasipul MP Charles Ong’ondo Were to shun social media ahead of the burial of the MP on Friday, May 9, 2025.
Speaking at the late legislator’s home in Karen on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, Wetang’ula observed that Kenyans have become heartless and callous.
“As a family, you have lost. Don’t pay any attention to the filth and nonsense on social media. Kenyans have become very callous, heartless and difficult to describe,” Wetang’ula said.
Friendship with Ong’ondo
Wetang’ula also indicated that his friendship with the deceased MP started in 2013, when Ong’ondo would coordinate the CORD coalition’s campaigns in Meru.
“We knew each other in 2013 when we were campaigning around the country as the CORD family at that time. He was always the one receiving us every time we went to Meru, accommodating us and arranging for our rallies; and since then, we became very good friends,” he reminisced.
He also stated that he had various plans with the late MP, including a church meeting in Oyugis in June and a planned visit to the Vatican, which Ong’ondo had requested him to be part of the delegation travelling to Rome.
“On the fateful day, I saw Charles, because he normally sits with Likoni MP Mishi Mboko and Kisauni MP Rashid Bedzimba,” Wetang’ula recounted.
MP deaths
He noted that the 13th Parliament had witnessed a series of deaths of its members after the 2022 general elections, urging the MPs to help the police unmask the killers of Ong’ondo.
“As a family of parliament, we have lost one too many of our members in this term. We lost Banisa MP Hassan Maalim, we lost the senator for Baringo William Cheptumo, Malava MP Malulu Injendi, and we have now lost Charles,” Wetang’ula stated.
The speaker equally urged the Nyanza MPs not to politicise the funeral, observing that the state would take care of several funeral expenses.
Funeral expenses
“We will be responsible for mortuary fees, buying the coffin, transporting the body and airlifting the family to Homa-Bay’s Kabunde Airstrip to allow you to get home in preparation for the Friday event,” he noted.
A postmortem report by government pathologist Johansen Oduor on Monday, May 5, 2025, indicated that the late MP died from bullet wounds, which ruptured his heart, lungs and blood vessels.
Police have since arrested at least four suspects, including a police officer, in connection with the incident that happened along Ngong Road on April 30, 2025.
