Samson Cherargei is a Senator serving his second term. The lawyer was elected into the Senate back in 2017 under the Jubilee party which was headed by former president Uhuru Kenyatta and deputised by President William Ruto.
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| Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei |
Since his election to the senate, Cherargei has curved a niche as a politician who is out to defend President Ruto.
In the first term of his entry into elective politics, he stood out at the senate for always standing up to the powers that be. He is a fierce debater who says things as is without sugarcoating.
Fast forward to 2024, the Nandi Senator who is now serving his second term has introduced a rather controversial Bill that seeks to extend terms of elected leaders from the current five year constitutional term to seven years.
The bill is also seeking to create the position of prime minister and strip the National Assembly some of its powers like that of vetting nominees to the cabinet, Attorney General, Auditor General, Inspector General, Chief Justice and Judges and give the same role to the senate.
The Bill also seeks to increase the allocation of sharable revenue from the exchequer to 40% from the current 15% that is legally allowed.
The Senator has also inserted a bill that will allow impeached governors and their deputies to dispute their impeachment at the Supreme Court. Currently, an impeachment can be overturned by the High Court.
The bill is controversial in the sense that it first seeks to extend terms of elective post by two years a position that is quite emotive to a number of people. If this proposal is to see the light of day, then it would definitely require a referendum.
The other issue of stripping the National Assembly some of its oversight roles is definitely not going to sit well with National Assembly members. Currently, by default the National Assembly enjoys more powers compared to the Senate which has been relegated to oversee issues concerning counties.
Devolution
The proposal to increase the revenue to counties from 15% to 40% is likely to be supported by governors. However, the same issue can be a thorny issue to the executive who control a lion's share of the revenues.
Increasing the sharable revenue has been a thorny issue and was among the issues raised by the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) which was declared unconstitutional by the supreme Court. Apart from this matter, the BBI had also proposed a one man one shilling revenue sharing formula.
Sponsor?
So who exactly is behind the recent Bill by Senator Cheragei?
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