Senators stop Kang’ata reggae

Senate Majority Whip Irungu Kang’ata thrives in David versus Goliath situations; especially where he’s the David. He became a Sonu leader at 19, a councillor at 22 and Member of Parliament for Kihara at 33.

He even felled former ambassador and political heavyweight Kembi Gitura to clinch the Senate seat in 2017. In 2012, long before he would join politics, Kang'ata also terminated Deputy Chief Justice Nancy Baraza’s career when he represented a security guard, Rebecca Kerubo, who had been threatened by the CJ in an altercation at Village Market.

But as the chief whip, he finds himself in unfamiliar territory. He is now a Goliath, not a David. He has transformed into a ruthless terminator of perceived opponents of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s agenda both in and out of Parliament, and especially in Mt Kenya region, a move that amplifies the parallels between the two men.

Kang'ata, who is currently pursuing a PhD in law at the University of Nairobi, has never tasted alcohol and doesn’t smoke despite being a well -known reggae music fan and at one time DJ.

However, his soberness may not be helping him as critics says the Murangá senator and his Majority Leader Samuel Poghisio have been unable to push through the Division of Revenue Bill in Senate and the government is staring at a loss.

In addition to taking on other senators, Kang'ata also threatened to stop the Building Bridges Initiative reggae if ODM senators did not back the government position on the revenue formula. He was, however, forced to retreat after pressure from President Kenyatta.

And during the debate on third criteria of sharing revenue among counties, Kang'ata, was in his usual element, hiding no fact that he was determined to terminate the political career of Nairobi senator Johnson Sakaja.

Sakaja is one of those lawmakers opposed to the new formula because if implemented, he argues, it will undermine the ideology of one indivisible Kenya, where equity is the norm, a fact that seems to have created a major rift between the two, and some factotums within Jubilee party.

Throughout last week, the Nairobi lawmaker would become an object of political attacks, both on social media. On Thika Road a banner was unfurled questioning his stand on the revenue issue and portraying him as a traitor.

When he sought to use the floor to raise the issue of his personal security, Kang'ata would hear none of it, saying the he ought to have raised it procedurally.

The Murang’a senator prefers to be known simply as Uhuru’s terminator, a term lifted from the Hollywood thriller the Terminator in which Anold Schwarzenegger, the main character, terminates his adversaries with precision and without a smile.