Of police sucker punch and Sakaja’s self-inflicted sack

 Senator Johnson Sakaja likes saying that Kenyan laws are not mere suggestions for people to choose whether they can comply or not.

The man, who has nicknamed himself “Super Senator” because of Nairobi County’s unique status, has always argued that obeying the laws of the land is an obligation of every citizen regardless of status, ethnicity, religion or even class.

The “laws are not suggestions” mantra has largely defined the life of the 35-year-old politician, who is in his second term as a senator, having been nominated between 2013 and 2017.

But in one crazy moment last week, the Super Senator made a mockery of the edict he has regularly preached about.

The senator was on Tuesday hauled before a court where he was fined Sh15,000 after his own plea of guilt, a tough call for the ever-cautious legislator whose political star has been rising since he worked as a consultant during the making of the current constitution that was passed at the 2010 referendum.

ARRESTED

He spent last Saturday night at Kilimani Police Station after he was arrested drinking at a bar along Dennis Pritt Road way past the 9pm curfew hour. He was taken in after creating a scene at the joint where he was found drinking past 1am with 10 others.

The first team of police officers had told the senator to leave the bar but he defied, prompting them call in their seniors. The lawmaker is said to have also defied the order of senior officers to leave and instead dared them to handcuff him and threatened to fire them.

Anyone who has been following Mr Sakaja’s public pronouncements must have been left in shock to hear that. This is a man who, as the chairman of The National Alliance party in 2015, said in an interview that he never uses his power as a weapon.

“The best way of handling power is by not realising that you have it,” he had told Business Daily. “I don’t think I have power because if I do, then it will go to my head.”

The Sakaja who appeared before cameras on Monday was more like the sober persona he has always projected.

FULL CONSEQUENCES

“I apologise to Kenyans and I will pay the full consequences of the law,” he told journalists, adding that he was resigning from the Senate’s ad-hoc committee on Covid-19 that he chaired and which, ironically, was supposed to advocate for measures aimed at keeping the coronavirus at bay.

That was more like the Mr Sakaja who had come out to endorse the Covid-19 safety measures and protocols when he and appeared on a TV advert asking Kenyans to maintain social distancing and to sanitise or wash their hands. It was more like the man who had earlier in March set the social media alight when he uploaded a video of him and his two sons delivering a passionate rap on how people should protect themselves from the disease.

In the 57-second video, the “Super Senator” and his sons encouraged Kenyans to stay safe and comply with the government’s directives, stating the importance of social distancing and washing hands with soap and water. They also urged Kenyans to implement the curfew announced by the government.

Having studied actuarial science at the University of Nairobi before joining public service, Mr Sakaja will now probably be more cautious about situations that may erode his “Mr Cool” image that has won him backers from within and outside his party and sustained his rise in the echelons of power.

Sakaja also worked in the office of the then finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta, now the President, and it appears that his actions played a part in him being made the chairman of Mr Kenyatta’s TNA party in 2012 and subsequent nomination to the Senate while in his late 20s.