Sakaja Johnson

Sakaja Johnson (born 2 February 1985) is the current Senator of Nairobi County, following his election to the position on 8 August 2017 General Election in Kenya. Previously, he was a nominated Member of Parliament (National Assembly), in office since 2017. He was nominated to Parliament by The National Alliance (TNA) party which is part of the ruling Jubilee Coalition (now Jubilee party).[1] He served as the National Chairman of The National Alliance (TNA) until 9 September 2016 when the party merged with 12 others to for the Jubilee Party.[2]

Sakaja Johnson
Born	(1985-02-02) 2 February 1985
Nationality	Kenyan
Other names	Arthur
Occupation	The Senator of Nairobi County
Notable work	Youngest Political Party leader, Astute Legislator
Political party	Jubilee Party

Early life

Sakaja was born and raised in Nairobi, in the then government quarters in Parklands as a last born in a family of three siblings. He went to Aga Khan Nursery and Primary school up to 1998 and later joined Lenana School where his leadership qualities were apparent very early on.[3] At Lenana, Sakaja was the prefects’ coordinator as well as the law society vice-chairman. During his days at Lenanna, he was at one time the best in public speaking in Kenya during the National Music Festivals through a topic titled "My Country Kenya". Thereafter, he joined University of Nairobi, after failing to raise the fees to join Havard despite passing the entry exams, where he graduated with a degree Actuarial Science. Sakaja landed his first job at the age of 19 years at Pricewatercoopers (PwC). After losing the job, a year later, he worked at a cyber cafe with his aunt and in the process started producing music. He developed an interest in rapping and wrote up several songs but never followed through to record and release the songs. He however worked with a gospel musical group called Mission Driven.[4] During his life in campus, Sakaja set up various businesses and ended up setting up a financial consultancy firm, Arthur Johnson Consultants, during his fourth year in campus. The firm is still actively running.

Political life

Sakaja’s political journey started in his days as a student at the University of Nairobi[5] as vice chair of the Actuarial Students Association. He was later elected as the Chairman of the Student Organisation of Nairobi University in SONU.[6] Sakaja’s first dalliance with national politics was in 2005, during the referendum for the then proposed constitution. He used his platform as a SONU leader to rally the youth at the Referendum. Thereafter, he joined the Kibaki team for 2007 elections starting off as a driver before eventually becoming the director of the Vijana na Kibaki lobby group. At the election, where he took a lead role in vote tallying support for the Presidential Secretariat. During the 2008 post-election crisis, his resolve to see a solution found resulted in him addressing President Mwai Kibaki’s Cabinet at the age of 22. It was here that he first came into contact with the current president (Uhuru Kenyatta) who was then the Minister for Local Government. He shortly moved to help with the formulation of the 2010 constitution where he took a lead role in definition of constituency boundaries. [7] Thereafter, at the age of 26, Sakaja helped form The National Alliance (TNA) of which he became the Chairman. This was the party that the current Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta rode to electoral victory in 2013. Aged only 27, he became the youngest Chairman of a ruling party in the world.

The thirty four year old Sakaja Johnson Arthur is the Senator of Nairobi County. He is also mandated to participate in law making, allocation of national revenue and exercising oversight over national revenue allocated to the county government. He also serves as the Chairperson of the Kenya Young Parliamentarians Association, a parliamentary caucus responsible for advocacy of youth empowering policies and legislation as well as mentorship of youth leaders. Sakaja has also co-authored a book in collaboration with the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ - Kenya Chapter) on Representation and Fiscal Decentralization having particularly written on the Operational Framework for Devolution in Kenya. Other than that, he serves as the Chairperson of the Committee of Labour and Social Welfare, a Standing Committee which deals with matters pertaining manpower and human resource planning, gender, cultural and social welfare, national heritage, betting, lotteries, sports, public entertainment, public amenities and recreation. Hon. Sakaja is also the Vice Chairperson of the committee on National Security, Defense and Foreign Relations. This is a Standing Committee on regional integration, national security and foreign relations, international relations, agreements, treaties and conventions.

Parliament

Sakaja was seconded by TNA to the National Assembly as one of its three nominated MPs. In the National Assembly, Sakaja was seconded by Jubilee Coalition to the House Business Committee, the Joint Committee on National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity and Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade. He is currently the Chairman of the Joint Committee on National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity. Sakaja is also the Chairman of Kenya Young Parliamentary Association[8] which is a caucus made up of MPs who are below 35 years of age.

Sakaja has served in his role at Parliament, sponsoring key Bills to which the President has assented to;

1. Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 –which essentially provides for "30% Procurement Reservation Criteria" for Youth, Women and Persons with disability.
2. The National Youth Employment Authority Bill, which creates a The National Employment Authority that shall actively seek opportunities for all the jobseekers in its database both locally and internationally, and prepare them for those opportunities through capacity building programs.[9]
3. The Private Security Regulation Bill, which provides for a framework for cooperation between private security companies and the national security organs
4. The Disaster Risk Management Bill, providing for a more effective organization of disaster risk management and mitigation, of preparedness for, response to and recovery from emergencies and disasters

Nairobi Senatorial race 2017

Sakaja stepped out of the Gubernatorial race and opted to go for the Senator seat.

Awards

1. African Achievers Award Change-maker of the Year 2016[10]
2. Jacob Well Award 2016 (Men Impacting Differently)[11]

Membership and association

1. Chairman Kenya Young Parliamentarians Association[12]
2. Chairman of the Committee on Labor and Social Welfare
3. Vice Chairman of the Committee on National Security, Defense and Foreign Relations
4. Patron of Kenya Professional Boxing Commission
5. Executive Member Kenya National Private Security Workers Union
6. Patron of AFC Leopards Football Club
7. Member of the Liaison Committee in the National Assembly

References

1. "Uhuru's TNA nominates Sakaja to Parliament". The Star, Kenya. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
2. "We have come together for unity and development - Uhuru's TNA » Capital News". Capital News. 9 September 2016. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
3. "Born a leader?". Mediamax Network Limited. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
4. missiondriven (2 September 2006), Save me Saviour (Forgive) by Mission Driven, retrieved 7 March 2017
5. Profile
6. Kenya: Johnson Sakaja’s charmed life outside rough and tumble of politics
7. knowledge of numbers
8. "KYPA | Young Members of Parliament". www.kypa.or.ke. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
9. "Bill to provide youths job access among 4 signed into law » Capital News". Capital News. 1 April 2016. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
10. App, Daily Nation. "Sakaja wins Africa change-maker award". Retrieved 7 March 2017.
11. Kingdom Business Solutions (12 July 2016), 2016 MID Hon Johnson Sakaja Video Break Free, retrieved 7 March 2017
12. "KYPA | Young Members of Parliament". www.kypa.or.ke. Retrieved 7 March 2017.

External links

• Official Website