By Macharia Gaitho
Former Managing Editor, Special Projects
Daily Nation
If there was to be ranking of the most disreputable fellows ever elected to political office since Independence, Mr Mbuvi Gidion Kioko Mike Sonko, to use his full name, would trounce everyone else hands down.
Mr Sonko may sometimes come across as a cartoon character but his extravagant fashion sense and public displays of buffoonery don’t conceal the fact that he has an extremely dark resume blotted with the crime, violence, thuggery, and self-confessed drug use. But it is one thing to be an obnoxious thug with an outlandish dress sense and quite another to be arming a private militia and engaged in terrorist activities.
How the good people of Nairobi ever found him fit for elective office is, surely, is beyond comprehension. Perhaps one day some clever fellows will conduct an analysis to figure out the collective madness that might have induced the capital’s voters to entrust Mr Sonko with leadership.
The boffins will of course also determine that people get the leaders they deserve. If it was madness to elect Mr Sonko as governor, the inescapable conclusion will be that the majority of Nairobi voters have a loose screw somewhere.
It is also said that we are the company we keep. Mr Sonko parlayed his apparent hold on the Nairobi voter into a warm and close relationship with President Kenyatta.
Despite obvious signs of an unbalanced persona, he was welcomed with open arms into the inner sanctum, from where it is likely many secrets were shared over some hedonistic pleasures.
From early on in public life, Mr Sonko displayed a penchant for illicit recordings of his conversations and trysts, as former MP Rachel Shebesh would attest. Any time he fell out with someone, it became standard operating procedure to go public with embarrassing detail, often with audio and video evidence, of whatever shenanigans he may have shared with the offending party. He took ‘kiss and tell’ to the extreme.
Mr Sonko may be a certified deplorable, but that is no license to subject him to a prosecutorial lynch mob. Those disgusted with his antics may applaud for now but they should be aware that, when the State is given the license to subvert the justice system for a private goal, they could one day become the next victims.
Beyond the corruption charges, he was already facing that triggered the ejection from City Hall, could now be extremely serious crimes touching on national security.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has reopened files on past crimes and misdemeanors that were not thought worthy of the courts’ time when Mr Sonko was in good books. It has also come up with ridiculous claims of engaging in terrorism and running a private militia, the apparent evidence being the wearing of quasi-military fatigues that are available in any market.
https://nation.africa/kenya/blogs-opinion/opinion/no-trumped-up-charges-for-sonko-3284098
Former Managing Editor, Special Projects
Daily Nation
If there was to be ranking of the most disreputable fellows ever elected to political office since Independence, Mr Mbuvi Gidion Kioko Mike Sonko, to use his full name, would trounce everyone else hands down.
Mr Sonko may sometimes come across as a cartoon character but his extravagant fashion sense and public displays of buffoonery don’t conceal the fact that he has an extremely dark resume blotted with the crime, violence, thuggery, and self-confessed drug use. But it is one thing to be an obnoxious thug with an outlandish dress sense and quite another to be arming a private militia and engaged in terrorist activities.
How the good people of Nairobi ever found him fit for elective office is, surely, is beyond comprehension. Perhaps one day some clever fellows will conduct an analysis to figure out the collective madness that might have induced the capital’s voters to entrust Mr Sonko with leadership.
The boffins will of course also determine that people get the leaders they deserve. If it was madness to elect Mr Sonko as governor, the inescapable conclusion will be that the majority of Nairobi voters have a loose screw somewhere.
It is also said that we are the company we keep. Mr Sonko parlayed his apparent hold on the Nairobi voter into a warm and close relationship with President Kenyatta.
Despite obvious signs of an unbalanced persona, he was welcomed with open arms into the inner sanctum, from where it is likely many secrets were shared over some hedonistic pleasures.
From early on in public life, Mr Sonko displayed a penchant for illicit recordings of his conversations and trysts, as former MP Rachel Shebesh would attest. Any time he fell out with someone, it became standard operating procedure to go public with embarrassing detail, often with audio and video evidence, of whatever shenanigans he may have shared with the offending party. He took ‘kiss and tell’ to the extreme.
Mr Sonko may be a certified deplorable, but that is no license to subject him to a prosecutorial lynch mob. Those disgusted with his antics may applaud for now but they should be aware that, when the State is given the license to subvert the justice system for a private goal, they could one day become the next victims.
Beyond the corruption charges, he was already facing that triggered the ejection from City Hall, could now be extremely serious crimes touching on national security.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has reopened files on past crimes and misdemeanors that were not thought worthy of the courts’ time when Mr Sonko was in good books. It has also come up with ridiculous claims of engaging in terrorism and running a private militia, the apparent evidence being the wearing of quasi-military fatigues that are available in any market.
https://nation.africa/kenya/blogs-opinion/opinion/no-trumped-up-charges-for-sonko-3284098
