Overwhelming responses to presidential term limit extension crash Senate systems

The Senate's official email system crashed after receiving over 200,000 submissions on the Constitution of Kenya Amendment (No. 2) Bill, 2024.

Thousands of Kenyans sent feedback on the proposal to extend the presidential and other elected leaders' terms from five to seven years.

"Thank you for the overwhelming response to the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2024. Due to high submission volumes, our email system has temporarily experienced issues. The Senate received over 200,000 submissions, reaching the maximum capacity of the allocated email addresses,” it said on X.

In response, the Senate has provided alternative contact details for submitting views on the bill.

The memoranda may be sent to the clerk of the Senate, hand-delivered to the clerk’s office at the main Parliament Buildings, or emailed to clerk.senate@parliament.go.ke, with a copy to senatejlahrc@parliament.go.ke

The deadline for submissions has also been extended to Saturday, October 26 at 5 p.m.

Further, religious leaders have denounced the Bill, calling it self-serving and focused on the interests of the ruling class.

"It’s been two years of Ruto’s reign, and we’re already exhausted. Seven years will break our backs," they said in a joint statement.

The Bill, which proposes extending the term of service for the president, governors, senators, MPs, and MCAs to seven years, has been under public review since October 2. It is sponsored by Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei.

Currently, elected leaders in Kenya serve for five years before seeking re-election with the President and Governors only allowed to go for two consecutive terms.