Senate adjourns morning session to demand release of colleagues

The Senate Assembly. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Senate on Monday adjourned the debate and vote on the disputed revenue sharing formula in protest of the arrest of their colleagues.

Senators demanded that they go on recess until their three colleagues -- Cleophas Malala (Kakamega), Christopher Langat (Bomet) and Steve Lelegwe (Samburu) were present in the chamber.

Speaker Kenneth Lusaka said they will resume the session at 2:30pm. It is the 11^th time the House was adjourning the revenue allocation formula debate.

Lusaka directed the chairperson of the Senate committee on National Security to consult relevant agencies and report to the House on the reported arrests.

Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei sought the adjournment and enjoyed overwhelming support by colleagues who held that they will continue only when they knew the status of the three legislators.

"It's extremely upsetting that Senators have to switch off their phones not to be traced. When did this become a police State? Who knows what is happening to Senator Lelegwe?" Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jnr posed.

Nairobi’s Johnson Sakaja said, "I have seen the same vehicle that was trailing me outside Senator Langat's house. I don't know why they didn't come after me today. This is extremely serious."

Siaya Senator James Orengo, who also supported the motion to adjourn, said they needed to return to the House in and tackle the contentious revenue sharing formula.

"I do not agree to an open ended adjournment because it shows we have no power and authority. I plead for the Speaker to use the authority of this House to summon the Interior CS, Police IG, DCI and AG, to appear before the Security Committee in the next one hour and report back at 2:30pm," Orengo said.

Standoff

Senator Christopher Langat was arrested after 12 hours of police camping outside his house at Nyayo estate in Nairobi. Malala is stilled holed inside is house and has maintained he will only leave in the presence of his lawyer and bodyguards.

Police say they are investigating claims of incitement to violence by the leaders and hence they need to talk to the two leaders.

It is not clear when the said crimes were committed and if it is true.

Dr Langat’s home was the first to be affected on Sunday night at around 10pm, forcing fellow senators to come to his rescue.

"I was in church in the morning if you wanted you would have arrested me, where are you taking me at night?" he shouted from his window.

Other officers went to the home of Senator Cleophas Malala at around 2am, also demanding to arrest him. Malala refused to leave the house. The officers were still outside the home.

Malala shouted from the balcony of his house asking the officers on their mission there. They told him they had been sent to get him for questioning.