Didmus Barasa: I stand with Sakaja
By Faith Lagat, March 31, 2026Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa has thrown his weight behind Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja amid a growing standoff between the Council of Governors and the Senate.
Barasa, during an interview on March 30, 2026, noted that “I stand with Sakaja,” urging the Speaker of the Senate to rise to the occasion and address serious allegations by governors that they are being extorted when summoned to appear before Senate committees.
Barasa criticised the frequency with which governors are hauled before the Senate, noting that they appear multiple times, sometimes moving from one committee to another within the same period.
“Governors appear before the Senate many times; you wonder when they have time to attend to what the people who voted for them expect them to do,” he said.
He proposed developing a clear legal framework to regulate these appearances, arguing that it should not be open-ended or disruptive to county operations.
Governors face repeated summonses
The MP highlighted that in a single financial year, governors could be summoned up to 15 times.
“Suppose they are told to come with money; if what they said is true, this means the money will have to be taken from somewhere it was not budgeted for, and audit queries will arise from there. This could possibly make the House a contributor to the queries they are struggling to answer,” Barasa warned.
His remarks come against the backdrop of long-standing tensions between county executives and the Senate’s oversight role, particularly through the County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC).
This show of solidarity comes as police have intensified efforts to locate and arrest Governor Sakaja following a Senate directive ordering his apprehension for contempt of Parliament. Regional Police Commander Issa Mohamud confirmed officers were actively searching for the governor but had not yet found him.
“I will go look for him. We are not relenting, and we are going to look for him, and if he does not present himself by tomorrow morning, maybe we will get him tonight,” he said.
Calls for dialogue and structured engagement
The arrest directive follows Sakaja’s failure to appear before the CPAC, chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang’, after multiple summonses to respond to over 30 audit queries for the 2024/2025 financial year. Sakaja described the police action as “unwarranted and unnecessary” and insisted the matter is institutional, not personal.
“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,” he said.
He called for restraint and structured dialogue between the Senate and the Council of Governors to resolve the impasse amicably, highlighting concerns over “extortion and intimidation” by some CPAC members.