Former Laikipia North Member of Parliament (MP) Mathew Lempurkel is dead.

Lempurkel died on Sunday, August 24, while undergoing treatment at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) following a tragic road accident earlier this week in Rongai, Kajiado County.

Reports indicate that the former outspoken legislator was admitted at KNH’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) following the accident.

Despite efforts to save his life, Lempurkel succumbed to his injuries on Sunday morning.

Known for his vocal advocacy for the rights of the Maa community, he was a fearless and passionate defender of indigenous land rights and a staunch advocate for marginalized communities in northern Kenya.

He represented the people of Laikipia North in Parliament from 2013 to 2017. It is during that stint that he curved his niche as a fearless and passionate defender of, not only the Maa, but marginalised communities in Northern Kenya.

In 2021, Lempurkel was sentenced to one year in prison after he was found guilty of assaulting current Laikipia North MP Sarah Korere, at Harambee House in Nairobi in 2016.

In November 2022, Lempurkel ditched the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Party for the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Party.

Before his election as MP, the former legislator was a renowned philanthropist serving his community as the Executive Director of Ndugu Zangu Christian Community Charitable Trust.

The Catholic Church-based organisation was key in changing the lives of thousands of children with heart problems, whom it sponsored for surgeries in leading cardiac hospitals in Italy, among other parts of the world.

The organisation helped pipe water from the Ewaso Nyiro River to far-flung areas of Ol Donyiro and Kipsing in Isiolo county, among other multi-million shilling development projects.