Nandi Senator Samson Kiprotich Cherargei is widely feared that he will one day meet his Waterloo out of his love for words and deeds of vanity.
For one, he is profiled as a man who can talk irritably as if on an assignment from the gods.
Not that he cares. Indeed, he appears perfectly at peace with himself while appearing to maximally irritate others to the point that he even speaks while his lips are arranged in readiness to laugh.
And Mr Cherargei can sympathise with you on your crucifixion journey while he is the one carrying the nails and the hammer. In 2024, he severally visited former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua to promise him unequivocal support against impeachment, but when the vote arrived at the senate, he voted against him.
His critics describe him as a polarising figure, a loose cannon and a political nuisance with a reputation driven by aggressive political manoeuvres, disruptive public conduct, and inflammatory statements that often agitate both the public and his own government.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei speaks at the Kenya Assemblies of God (KAG) Church in Kapsabet.
But his supporters talk of a man who most likely missed his calling to being a wag and is only responding to the missed opportunity by living true to his comic inspiration while in politics.
He has been charged in court for saying things that have zero value for social integration and cohesion, and has been temporarily kicked out of the Senate several times for being a heckler.
Mr Cherargei, who is serving his second term, is associated with debates seeking to amend the constitution to extend the electoral cycle by two years from the current five, using his head as the referendum podium and also seeking to withdraw retirement benefits of former President Uhuru Kenyatta on whimsical grounds that appear to make sense only to himself.
Yet, political scientist John Okumu says Mr Cherargei is a good presence in our politics since he provides comic relief to a stressful environment where many politicians inspire no one.
“It is better listening to Mr Cherargei make a good fool of himself and distract other politicians to respond cheaply to him instead of boring us with their pretense to intelligence when, in actual sense, many of them are daft. It is better to have a date with Cherargei, who does not pretend to be wise or intelligent but just drops statements around without a care for playing clever,” he says.
On May 12, Mr Cherargei – while on the floor of the Senate – claimed that some of his colleagues are Class Three dropouts who cannot even express themselves officially or nationally.
Pressed to substantiate, he laughed his way around, saying that, given time, he could list those who have never uttered a word on the floor of the house.
Days earlier, on May 6, he had used a point of order in the Senate to celebrate the win of his favourite team, Arsenal, over Atletico Madrid in the Champions League semi-final, expressing his wish that Arsenal faces Bayern Munich in the final. He was quickly ruled to be out of order.
He had earlier caused a national outrage when he remarked that youthful protesters needed to be crushed mercilessly, citing Tanzania and Uganda as good role models on how the government should respond to protests.
Mr Cherargei has also publicly accused a man of “having everything fake apart from his teeth”.
A lawyer by profession, whom Nairobi Senator Mr Edwin Sifuna accuses of having no other known ambition apart from remaining a lifetime senator, he once accused a Cabinet Secretary of receiving a $100 million (Sh12.9 billion) bribe from a Chinese contractor. When he was pressed to provide proof, he said, “It is common knowledge”.
But Mr Cherargei appears to be having a kick of his lifetime in his rabble-rousing.
He told Nation: “I want to be remembered as a politician who never exercised hypocrisy, lived an organic life that has no pretenses, and as a leader who tirelessly attempted to represent and oversight for the true interests of the people.”
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