Kenya Insights

Tag: Senate

  • Senate Suspends Sitting As Murkomen Comes Under Fire During Grilling on Albert’s Death

    Senate Suspends Sitting As Murkomen Comes Under Fire During Grilling on Albert’s Death

    NAIROBI, Kenya – The Kenya Senate suspended its regular proceedings on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, to focus exclusively on the death of digital blogger Albert Ojwang in police custody, as Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen faced intense questioning from lawmakers demanding accountability.

    The extraordinary Senate session saw Murkomen appear alongside Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja, Director of Criminal Investigations Amin Mohammed, and IPOA Deputy Chairperson Anne Mwangi to address the national outrage surrounding Ojwang’s death at Nairobi Central Police Station on June 8.

    Under pressure from senators, Murkomen pledged that the government would not shield anyone found culpable in the blogger’s death, describing the incident as “regrettable” and extending condolences to the bereaved family.

    “We will do everything within the ministry to ensure that there is no interference, no shielding of any individual, and no cover-up,” Murkomen stated during his appearance before the Senate plenary.

    The Interior CS promised to mobilize resources to ensure justice is served, but his assurances appeared to do little to quell the anger of lawmakers who have been demanding swift action since news of Ojwang’s death broke.

    The session came amid growing calls for the immediate resignation of Deputy Inspector General Eliud Lagat, whose complaint allegedly led to Ojwang’s arrest.

    Senators have been particularly critical of Lagat’s role in the incident, with some calling for his arrest over the blogger’s death.

    Senate Speaker Amason Kingi allocated two hours for the special session, during which proceedings were broadcast live and media access was granted.

    “This time will be used by the Senate to engage with the CS and his team,” Kingi directed, emphasizing the gravity of the matter.

    The controversy intensified following an autopsy conducted by government pathologist Dr. Bernard Midia, which confirmed that Ojwang died from injuries consistent with a violent assault.

    The examination revealed extensive head injuries, neck compression, and multiple trauma wounds, contradicting initial police claims that he had hit his head against a cell wall.

    Ojwang, 34, was found unconscious in his cell at Central Police Station on Sunday morning and was pronounced dead upon arrival at Mbagathi Hospital.

    The teacher and social media influencer had been arrested at his home in Homa Bay County on Saturday afternoon and transported over 400 kilometers to Nairobi.

    The death has sparked nationwide condemnation, with human rights organizations, including Amnesty International Kenya, calling for thorough investigations.

    The organization stated that “no Kenyan should lose their life in police custody” and emphasized the legal and moral duty of police officers to ensure the safety of those in their custody.

    Migori Senator Eddy Oketch, who petitioned the Senate to summon the security officials, led calls for accountability over what lawmakers described as “inhumane treatment” that resulted in Ojwang’s death.

    The incident has drawn comparisons to other high-profile cases of alleged police brutality in Kenya and comes at a time when President William Ruto’s administration faces mounting criticism over reports of forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

    Inspector General Kanja confirmed that senior officers at Central Police Station have been interdicted pending investigations into the incident.

    The case highlights ongoing concerns about police conduct and accountability in Kenya’s criminal justice system.

    The Senate’s decision to suspend regular business to focus on Ojwang’s death underscores the severity of the matter and the pressure on the government to provide satisfactory answers to a nation demanding justice for the slain blogger.

    As investigations continue, the case has become a litmus test for the government’s commitment to addressing police brutality and ensuring accountability within the security forces.

  • Senators About-turn On Sh316 Billion County Funds

    Senators About-turn On Sh316 Billion County Funds

    Senate has finally dropped its push for additional budgetary allocation to counties a move that has seen billions of shillings to the devolved units unlocked and averting a looming shutdown of the almost broke 47 County governments.

    A team that the Senate had picked demanded more allocation be given to the county government and had sworn not to give it up only to make an about-turn to accept the Sh316.5 billion previously offered by the National Assembly and the Treasury.

    Governors had said county governments services had been crippled due to accumulated billions of shillings in overdue debt owed to contractors and suppliers. CoG Chair who is also the Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya had warned of an imminent shutdown had the two-month stalemate over the Division of Revenue Bill, 2019 persisted beyond this week.

    Senators effectively retreated from a hardline stance of demanding Sh335.6 billion for the 47 devolved units.

    “The country is faced with the real prospect of a shutdown of services at the counties. For this reason…the Senate has made the painful but patriotic decision to advise our negotiators at the ongoing mediation process to agree to the allocation of Sh316.5 billion as the equitable share of nationally raised revenue to the allocation to the counties,” the Senate said in a joint statement read by Leaders of Majority and Minority Kipchumba Murkomen and James Orengo respectively.

    The standoff between the National Assembly and the Senate over the allocation has paralyzed activities in the counties, leading the Council of Governors (CoG) to announce a complete shutdown from September 16. The standoff has caused a prolonged cash crisis in the counties that led to strikes over salary delays with a number of county governments failing to pay salaries to date.

    Governors have been cussing the Senate terming them as The financial crunchers that had disrupted key operations, including development projects started and some assimilated by the respective county governments.

    Governors had been accusing the Senators of crippling their progress so that they can get something to grill them with to satisfy their ego by stalling projects hence triggering variation of contracts and demand for hefty interest on delayed payments.

    The duel also affected suppliers of goods and services, resulting in low sales for goods such as construction materials like cement. Essential services such as provision of health care have also been affected following the grandstanding between the two Houses that have been claiming superiority.

    In an acrimonious informal meeting dubbed the Speakers’ Kamukunji, the Senate said the process of passing the Division of Revenue Bill, 2019 has been arduous.

    “The Senate is cognisant that we are fast approaching the end of the first quarter of the financial year and counties are yet to receive their share of nationally raised revenue. This would have a disastrous effect on critical sectors such as agriculture and health,” the Senate said.

  • Much Of Maize Reserved At NCPB Is Contaminated With Aflatoxin

    Much Of Maize Reserved At NCPB Is Contaminated With Aflatoxin

    State’s Strategic Food Reserve (SFR) are holding over 124,486 bags of maize contaminated with aflatoxin.

    This is coming at a time when the government is contemplating importing maize to plug a biting shortfall.

    Ministry of Agriculture has in a report tabled in Parliament revealed that more than half of the contaminated maize is to be destroyed through incineration.

    NCPB said that the other half will be used to process animal feeds.

    According to the World Health Organisation,WHO, large doses of aflatoxin leads to acute poisoning (aflatoxicosis) that is life-threatening, usually through damage to the liver.

    Long-term or chronic exposure to aflatoxins has several health consequences and may affect all organ systems, especially the liver and kidneys. It can also cause liver cancer.

    NCPB which stores the strategic food reserves (SFR), had issued a statement early last month saying that maize worth Sh9.2 billion was at risk of going to waste.

    The cash-strapped NCPB said they’ve ran out of funds to light storage silos and most importantly, carry out fumigation.

    Credible sources say that NCPB employees have gone two months without salaries.

    Kenya Power had also disconnected electricity over pending bills.

    Strategic Food Reserve’s board is yet to make a decision on whether to approve the destruction of the poisonous maize despite recommendations by an inter-agency team that the grain should be disposed through incineration under supervision of the Directorate of Public Health.

    A report tabled before the Senate committee on Agriculture, shows that about half of the maize with harmful aflatoxin levels (more than 20 parts per billion against the East African Community standard of 10 parts per billion) is currently held in Machakos and Nakuru Depots.

    The report also revealed that Nairobi, Meru, Migori, Lugari and Isiolo NCPB depots are holding contaminated maize with aflatoxin levels of below 20ppb.

    “Maize with total aflatoxin levels of more than 20ppb be disposed through incineration in a kiln preferably Bamburi Cement factory which can attain temperatures of more than 2,000 degrees centigrade required for denaturing the aflatoxin,” reads part of the report recommendations.

    Severe maize shortfall has seen shelf prices of packaged maize flour hit Sh125.

    In what was termed as, effort to meet the shortfall, The government last week announced through the ministry of Agriculture that it will open a window for duty-free import of 12.5 million bags of maize.

    Ten million bags out of the 12.5 million earmarked for importation will be white maize for household consumption while 2.5 million will be yellow maize for processing of animal feeds.

    According to the contaminated maize report, Machakos depot is holding 10,710 bags of the grain with the highest aflatoxin levels of 28.8 ppb followed by Nakuru depot which has 54,597 bags with 28.6ppb levels.

    Isiolo has 11,663 contaminated bags. Meru has14,460 contaminated bags. Lugari has 26,264, Nairobi 5,427 and Migori 1,504.

    The contamination levels range between 13.6ppb to 28.8ppb.

    Agriculture Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri says the Ministry constituted an inter-agency committee on food safety and standards with members from National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB), Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (Kalro), Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (Kephis), Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) and Ministry of Health to carry out sampling and subsequent laboratory analysis for aflatoxin contamination.

    “The collected maize samples were subject to laboratory analysis and the results showed that a total of 6,231.25 MT in seven depots had aflatoxin levels of more than 10 ppb,” CS Kiunjuri said.

    CS for Agriculture also added that two rounds of sampling were carried out in November 2018 and January 18, 2019.

    According to CS Kiunjuri, a committee led by the ministry of Health visited the seven depots from March 3 and 7 to isolate and officially seize the maize contaminated with aflatoxin as required by the law.

    Mr Kiunjuri, in a brief presented to MPs by Andrew Tuimur, the Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) told said the committee had made a number of recommendations pursuant to the East African Community (EAC) Policy Brief No.8 of 2018.

  • Law School Has Been Deliberately Failing Students To Make More Money As Senate Launches Probe

    Law School Has Been Deliberately Failing Students To Make More Money As Senate Launches Probe

    Kenya school of law has recorded an 8 year consecutive 53% fail in the Bar examination.

    This has prompted the Senate to launch parallel investigations of the reason and unearth the cartels behind the mass failure of the Bar examination at the Kenya School of Law.

    Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei, who’s the chair of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee launched a parallel investigation team following
    a petition by one Mr Elkana Kitur and Mr Abdalla Suleiman.

    Senator Cherargei said that the Senate is concerned about learning and credibility of the bar examination at the KSL.

    From the numbers seen by the investigators of this site, the number of candidates failing the bar exams has been constantly increasing with more than 4% every year.

    This cartel cooked up mass failure is the cause of increased frustration and uncontrollable depression among students who work harder in exams for them to be admitted to the Bar.

    This is not the first time the Kenya School of Laws is being investigated, earlier this year Law Society of Kenya (LSK) launched investigation in these mass failure schemes and have an ongoing probe.

    This decision was arrived after failed Bar students forwarded written complaints to LSK chair.

    The Senate committee is going to investigate institution’s deep structures and exam systems.

    Senator Cherargei assured that the committee is going to expose the cartels at Council of Legal Education (CLE).

    Jacob Gakeri is the CEO at council of legal Education a body that has made Bar examinations their cash cow.

    The Senate probe team will also conduct an audit of finances at the CLE, its leadership and the KSL to unearth the whereabouts of Resits and Remarking fees that the students pay.

    KSL charges Sh5,000 per Unit, a Bar student sits for nine Units which means each student has to pay a total of Sh45,000.

    The cash cow deal comes in when one fails because Remarking of a single unit paper costs Sh15,000 and the KSL charges a Resit of the paper Sh10,000.

    Cartels have created a profittable disconnect between the way lawyers are trained and the exams they sit at the KSL.

    KSL director David Mutai couldn’t explain why students are failing while he says he’s busy making sure the standards of the profession do not fall.

    Mercy Wambua, LSKs Chief Executive told this writer that they set up a committee in November last year to establish why more than half of the students have been consecutively failing the exams.

    In 2018, the taskforce chaired by lawyer Fred Ojiambo revealed that only 7,530 out of 16,086 bar students passed.

    This means 8,549 failed, which loosely translates to a 53% failure rate.

    This cartel mass failure of bar exams has caused uproar from students and legal stakeholders, and to make it worse failed candidates are only allowed to attempt the exams within five years.

    And if the candidates fail after maximum number of attempts, KSL may permit them to attempt the Bar examination within a further five years after they have been readmitted to the advocates training programme.

    This is an unjust training of key pillars of our Justice system.

  • Disaster: An Acute Maize Shortage Is Looming In Kenya

    Disaster: An Acute Maize Shortage Is Looming In Kenya

    Agriculture Cabinet  Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri has declined to authorise the importation of more maize.

    NCPB stock records indicate that they have bags to run for only one month in storage.

    CS Kiunjuri says the decision to authorize maize importation requires approval of a full Cabinet.

    CS Kiunjuri said duty-free imports have been controversial in the past years.

    The CS told a local press that he’s going to involve the entire cabinet in the vital decision in order to avoid political cartels that always make huge profits from such importations.

    Initially, ministry of Agriculture used to apply for tax waivers from the Treasury. The ministry would later issue permits to specific traders and millers who later imports duty-free maize.

    Maize is the staple food in many poor households and the anticipated shortage would lead to massive prices hikes of maize flour and products.

    “I know time is running out, but I will leave that decision to be made by the Cabinet. I understand that landmines are being set for me and that is what I am avoiding,” CS Mwangi Kiunjuri in a media press.

    The Government had said that they have 21 million bags, which from their estimations would sustain the country until mid June.

    The NCPB is also set to release 3 million bags to Maize Miller’s. The bags are from governments Strategic Food Reserves.

    In 2017, Treasury CS Henry Rotich and the then Agriculture CS Willy Bet were subjected to thorough scrutiny and grilling from the Senate for abuse of the importation process.

    Last year, the Senate agricultural committee members accused Mr Bett of opening gates of cheap maize which affected local farmers products that were already in the markets.

    Gerald Musila, the Executive Director of Eastern African Grain Council, said that the maize will arrive more than 3 months later.

    Musila emphasized that the process should have been authorized months ago because it takes over 3 months for maize to reach Kenya from any suitable country.

    Kenya had previously imported controversial maize from Mexico that took over 4months to reach in the country.

    Our agricultural statistics indicate that Kenya depends on maize imports from Malawi and Zambia.

    However, Zambia has barred all maize importations and Malawi crop production was massively affected by Cyclone Kenneth and Cyclone .

    Tegemeo Institute researcher Dr. Timothy Njagi, said the needs to be an accurate assessment of the amount of maize in the country.

    flour section in a supermarket. FILE PHO

    In support of Dr. Njagi’s advice was Dr. Andrew Tuimur, the Chief Administrative Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture.

    Dr Tuimur said that the ministry want to avoid the repeat of mistakes that made in 2017.

    In 2017, the government subsidy programme intended to import 6million backs but a backdoor deal between the ministry and Millers saw 10million bags being imported in.

    In April this year, Kenya’s inflation rate increased to 6.58% from the previous 4.35%.

    Kenya Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has projected a very sharp rise and increased maize flour and corn related food prices.

    KNBS also reported that the maize shortage is going to cause a price upsurge on nonalcoholic and alcoholic drinks as from mid June.

  • House of Thugs: Most Sitting MPs Are Battling Criminal Cases In Kenya

    House of Thugs: Most Sitting MPs Are Battling Criminal Cases In Kenya

    Have you seen, interacted or even heard of your Member of Parliament?

    Probably no, because they are busy in corridors of courts seeking their freedom and ‘justice’.

    Our August house is full of crooks and masterminds of fleecing the coffers.

    Chapter Six of the our new constitution that basically entails Leadership and Integrity Act, looks like a printed joke.

    Almost every elected member of parliament or even the senate has a case or piles of cases to answer, defend and mostly, clear their names.

    Kenya’s economy has been crippled by massive fraud, multi-billion graft and high-end forgeries all courtesy our elected and appointed officials.

    Francis Ole Kaparo, the chair of the now dysfunctional NCIC has also not been playing his role.

    This has created a niche that encourages hate speech and incitement to violence from the mouthy government officials.

    The corruption that is in this country is unbelievable.

    All scandals are linked from one member of the parliament to another corrupt deal cleared by a member of Senate to another fraud that touches the Executive which leads to another corrupt clearing by the Judiciary.

    In a working democracy, The Leadership and Integrity Act laws are supposed to be governing the government officials.

    Also, Public Officer Ethics Act is supposed to be working according to our new constitution.

    Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission was crippled when the President appointed a retired Archbishop, Eliud Wabukala, to leader and govern corrupt government officials.

    Actually, our constitution has well thought out Laws that can actually work to make our country better and great.

    These acts are supposed to be governing our members of the national house of laws.
    a) Parliamentary Privileges and,
    b) Parliamentary Powers 2017,
    c) National Assembly standing
    Orders and,
    d) Speaker’s Rules.

    Over 50 Legislators in the August house and another 30 from the Senate have active cases of Criminal Offences.

    But the most affected ones are members of the parliamentary committees.

    These legislators have active cases and allegations of extortion, bribery, corruption, breach of parliamentary acts and national assembly orders.

    Parliamentary committee members are the master chiefs of all major fraud and scandal not forgetting the massive bribes they collect to clear corrupt dealings within the houses.

    Samuel Kimeu, the Executive Director of Transparency International says very little has been done to realise the full functions of the Constitution.

    “Until we get a way in which State officers can lose benefits and stature when charged in court, we may not make much constitutional progress,” Mr Kimeu told a local press.

    National Council of Churches in Kenya Secretary General Peter Karanja also said that a rogue legislature, couple of selfish politicians and their cronies enacted laws that washed out the much needed Chapter 6 of the Constitution.

    An allegation that the National parliament speaker Justine Muturi refused to comment about when he was contacted by the investigators of this site.

    The National Assembly published last year that, there is an overlap between the Parliamentary (Powers and Privileges) Act 2017, the Leadership and Integrity Act and
    the Public Officer Act.

    With that out and aside, Nakuru Town East MP David Gikaria was charged today with assault, incitement, resisting arrest and causing disturbance at a Nakuru based Police Station.

    The Police said that the MP slapped a deputy sub-county commander when he was being questioned about the land grabbing allegations.

    David Gikaria was on 28th of January arraigned in court on eight counts of land fraud.

    On 25th June this year, Nakuru Town West MP Samuel Arama was also arraigned in Nairobi’s Milimani anti-corruption court on charges of conspiring to defraud Mr Ahmed Muhammad land in Nakuru Municipality in August 2015.

    Mr Arama was also charged of Misleading Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission investigators.

    The notorious Bahati MP, Kimani Ngunjiri was on also arrested arrested for assaulting a lady traffic officer in Nakuru Town.

    He was later released by the court after they agreed to settle the matter privately.

    Bobasi MP Innocent Obiri is still fighting in the corridors of justice after he was charged with breach of peace by a Kisii High court.

    Mr Obiri was arrested and charged alongside his bodyguard Charles Nyakweba, who was charged separately of assault and malicious damage to property.

    Former president of Lamu County Issa Timamy was also charged with terrorism in 2014. A case that has been mentioned for over 4 years now.

    Changamwe MP Omar Mwinyi was earlier last year sentenced to four years in prison with an alternative fine of Sh1 million.

    He was charged and found guilty of assaulting two police officers during ODM party nominations in April 2017.

    Lugari MP Ayub Savula has a case to answer on charges of fraudulently obtaining Sh122 million from the Government Advertising Agency (GAA).

    Embakasi North MP James Gakuya was last year charged jointly with 12 others, of acquiring fraudulently Sh39.9 million from National Government Constituency Development Funds.

    The mouthy Sirisia MP John Waluke was arrested over corruption allegations that he denied at preliminary investigation but later a city court said he has a case.

    The controversial Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter was charged alongside two businessmen with multiple counts related to forgery of Sh633 million Treasury Bills.

    Mwingi Central MP Gideon Mulyungi, who was a principal secretary, was in October last year charged with hate speech against the Presidency.

  • Kiambu County Budget Line Puzzle

    Kiambu County Budget Line Puzzle

    Latest financial report from Auditor General about Kiambu county government has baffled the Senate.

    Reading the report to Kiambu Governor, Senator Moses Kajwang’ clarified the report one by one during the senate session

    (Courtesy of K24TV)

    The Budget lines for Kiambu County Govt as per the report given to the Senate By  Auditor General.

    TheCo-ordination of State House functions Ksh 973M

    Administration of Statutory benefits for the retired Presidents Ksh180M

    State corporations advisory service Ksh591M

    The report further suggests that Kiambu County government had a budget line for Kenya~South Sudan peace advisory services valued at Ksh 58M.

    The Kiambu county government president said the report was new to him and believes it’s a misuse of the National government.

    (Courtesy of K24TV)

    With all these figures being unearthed by Auditor General now, it’s about time we get a full budget lines from every county.

    There’s are a lot of things our county governments are spending our taxes on in the shadow.

    Also Read:Baby Skin Care and Boils Treatment

    Indebtedness  has gradually developed in our counties, what was supposed to be devolution development centers.

    Can the public also be enlightened on how they can hold to account the non productive and corrupt officials when such reports see the light of the day.

    It’s about time for Kenyans to fight corruption and its agents before it turns us a century back with a collapsed economy.