Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen outside the Senate building on Tuesday, May 12, 2020.
Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen outside the Senate building on Tuesday, May 12, 2020/Courtesy
 
 By Reporter

Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen has likened the current political scenario playing out in the country to the times leading to former President Daniel Moi’s retirement and his succession.

Murkomen was last week stripped of his role as Senate Leader of Majority after a Jubilee Parliamentary Group meeting chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House.

On Monday, he came out gun blazing claiming that the handshake between Uhuru and ODM leader Raila Odinga was just a ploy for some unnamed people to take over the leadership of Kenya.

“This is Moi Succession all over again. Handshake-corporation-merger-throwout “rebels”-introduce your “project” and the rest is what u know,” Murkomen said.

“Like Ecclesiastes said, What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Let’s just be calm,” he said.

 

The Senate changes were instigated by pro-Uhuru Senators who handed the Majority leader post to West Pokot lawmaker Samuel Poghisio.

Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika also lost her position as Chief Whip to Murang’a Senator Irungu Kangata in changes which Deputy President William Ruto allies were done illegally.

After his ouster, Murkomen said that his removal from the Senate Majority leadership position had only catapulted his political career.

The senator asked his supporters to take heart after what happened and promised them for brighter days ahead.

“I have just started my political life. I have only been seven years in politics Mr Speaker. I believe that this is just but the morning of a political career,” he said during a senate session last week.

“There will be a brighter future…I will come back and come back big Mr Speaker.”

But with the loss of this position, Murkomen will be adjusting to his new life without millions of shillings and other benefits that come with the office of Senate Majority leader.

After the Speaker’s office, the other that is well taken care of is the Majority leader’s.

Currently, a Majority Leader takes home Sh1,056,000 monthly, Sh35,240 above what a Minority leader is entitled to. 

The senator will now take home Sh710,000, just like any other senator, at the end of the month.

This will be Sh346,000 less than his previous monthly earnings