Double tragedy: Laboso family loses two prominent daughters

The death of Governor Joyce Laboso on Monday marks a double tragedy for the Laboso family which has now lost two high profile daughters within 11 years.

The late Joyce Laboso’s Sister Lorna was Member of Parliament and died in a plane crash in Narok alongside former Cabinet Minister Kipkalya Kones on June 10, 2008.

It is the death of the late Lorna Laboso that ushered a reluctant university lecture Joyce Laboso into politics.

Joyce proved herself effective on the stump; winning herself a second term as Member of Parliament for Sotik.

In 2013, Laboso rose to become the national assembly’s deputy speaker, representing Speaker Justin Muturi in continental conferences.

In the 2017 general election, Laboso plunged into the epic battle for the seat of governor in Bomet, taking on political titan Isaac Ruto of the Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party.

It was a race that was teeming with undertones that included a Kalenjin supremacy battle between Isaac Ruto and Deputy President William Ruto and a proxy war between Jubilee presidential candidate President Uhuru Kenyatta and NASA flagbearer Raila Odinga.

The two slogans ‘Kiwole’ and ‘Mokiwole’ in local dialect to mean change for Laboso and remain with the status quo for the rebel Ruto.

Laboso died at the Nairobi Hospital at the age of 59 after a long battle with cancer.