Sakaja drives himself to Senate hours after police manhunt
By Cynthia Lodite, March 31, 2026Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja drove himself to the Senate building just hours after a dramatic police hunt for him for snubbing the House watchdog committee.
In a video seen by People Daily Digital on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, Sakaja was seen alighting from the driver’s seat of a black car at the Senate building and hurriedly making his way inside, with fewer security personnel present.
He paused for a minute, saying hello to members of the fourth estate before proceeding to the building.
“Alaa how are you guys?, mko sawa…?” Sakaja stated.
By the time of this publication, the Senate had not issued an update on whether Sakaja faced the watchdog committee or not.
His move to the Senate comes after police intensified efforts to locate him following a Senate directive ordering his arrest for contempt of Parliament.
At the time, Issa Mohamud, the Regional Police Commander, talked to the press on Monday, March 30, 2026, at Nairobi City Hall and confirmed that officers have been looking for the governor but have not yet found him. He stated that the operation will continue until Sakaja is apprehended and presented before the Senate committee.
Sakaja dismisses the arrest warrant
Meanwhile, just hours after the police launched the hunt at City Hall, Sakaja swiftly moved to dismiss a move by the Kenya Police Service to deploy officers to arrest him, terming the action “unwarranted and unnecessary”.
At the time, the Nairobi Governor was insisting that the dispute in question was institutional, not personal.
In his statement on Monday, March 30, 2026, Sakaja said the arrest order, arising from his failure to appear before a Senate watchdog committee, fails to take into account an ongoing standoff between the Council of Governors and the Senate of Kenya.
“The issue at hand is not a personal matter concerning Governor Sakaja Johnson, but one that is being handled collectively by the Council of Governors,” the statement read.
Sakaja defended his absence, saying he acted on guidance from the Council of Governors, which advised members not to appear before the specific Senate committee until broader concerns are resolved. He argued that disputes between governors and senators “should be addressed institutionally… not through actions targeting an individual governor”.
This comes after senators roped in the Inspector General of Police, Douglas Kanja, to institute arrest orders against governors defying summons.