Angry Kenyans online crash Senate systems as they oppose presidential term limit extension

The Senate has confirmed experiencing technical issues with their email system following an influx of submissions made by Kenyans regarding the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) (No 2) Bill, 2024. 

The bill, sponsored by Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei, seeks to increase the term limits for the President, Governors, Members of Parliament, and Members of County Assemblies from the current five to seven years.

The public participation phase of the bill is set to conclude on Friday, October 25, with Kenyans urged to make their submissions either through hand-delivery at the Office of the Clerk of the Senate, or email.

The public participation forum discussing the bill is presently being held at the KICC, Nairobi, to collect submissions regarding Kenyans' views.

The bill has thus attracted a lot of criticism as the majority of Kenyans voiced their frustrations over the government's tone deaf approach in delivering its mandate. 

According to the Senate, their email system has received over 200,000 submissions, reaching the maximum capacity of the allocated email addresses.

The Senate appealed to Kenyans to alternatively use senatejlahrc@parliament.go.ke to make their submissions. 

"Thank you for the overwhelming response on The Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) (No 2) Bill ,2024. Due to high volumes of submissions, our email system has temporarily experienced issues," the Senate said in a statement.

The Senate's announcement follows concerns raised by Kenyans who complained of being unable to make their submissions.

" Your message to senatejlahrc@parliament.go.ke has been blocked. See technical details below for more information," read some of the posts shared online.

This raised speculations on whether the government was deliberately attempting to interfere with the public participation phase of the bill.