Kingi orders arrest of Samburu governor amid Senate standoff
By Kenneth Mwenda, April 1, 2026Senate Speaker Amason Kingi has ordered the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort Samburu Governor Lati Lelelit to the Parliament Police Station.
The move came after the governor was spotted within the Parliament precincts despite a warrant issued for his arrest. The warrant followed repeated failure to appear before the Senate’s County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC).
“In the meantime, I will instruct the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the Samburu Governor to the nearest police station if he remains within the Parliament precincts,” Kingi said during a Senate sitting on Wednesday, April 1, 2026.
The incident comes amid an ongoing standoff between the Senate of Kenya and the Council of Governors (CoG) over accountability proceedings. On Tuesday, March 31, 2026, CoG Chair Ahmed Abdullahi condemned what he called the “unwarranted use of force” by police in the attempted arrest of Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja the previous evening.
Abdullahi said the non-appearance of governors before CPAC was a collective decision.
“We state in the strongest terms possible that this matter is not a personal issue concerning one governor but a collective decision made by the council of governors following continuous extortion, unnecessary harassment, and intimidation by four members of the said committee,” Governor Abdullahi noted.
Governors defend council stance
The council claimed that out of 29 governors summoned to appear, only two showed up, and even those declined substantive engagement in line with the council’s resolution. Abdullahi insisted that enforcing arrests against individual governors would undermine trust and weaken oversight mechanisms.
In a 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.
Despite this, he later drove himself to the Senate building on March 31, showing willingness to engage once institutional matters are clarified.