Sonko denies running City Hall affairs from his Mua Hills home

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has refuted claims that he is running City Hall affairs from his Mua Hills home in Machakos County.

This comes after pictures emerged of the governor meeting his Cabinet at his home on Monday, with reports claiming that he had run away from Nairobi fearing for his life, after his security detail was reduced from 15 to five last week.

The meeting came after he summoned the county executive committee members for a roundtable get-together on Sunday;  an insider revealed that  they held a follow-up meeting on Tuesday.

EXECUTIVES

The photo showed a number of his executives – Charles Kerich (Lands and Housing),  Allan Igambi (Tourism and Trade), Mohamed Dagane (Transport and Roads),  Larry Wambua (Environment), Ms Emmah Mukuhi (ICT), Ms Veska Kangogo (Devolution),  Ms Janet Ouko (Education) and Hitan Majevdia (Health) – together with County Attorney Lydia Kwamboka, Chief of Staff Mugo Kamau, and Secretary Peter Kariuki.

“I don’t know why people are claiming that Governor Mike Sonko is under ‘siege’. The City Governor has homes in several towns: Garissa, Kisumu, Mombasa, Kilifi, Malindi, Machakos, Nairobi, among others. 

HIDING

“Furthermore, he has a right to hold meetings in any of his homes, so we should desist from making utterances that depict Sonko as hiding,” read a statement from City Hall Deputy Director of Communication Elkana Jacob.

Mr Jacob said that Sonko is a free man, elected by the majority of Nairobi voters, who has fought many cartels that were stealing huge amounts of money from Kenyans.

PALATIAL HOME

Governor Sonko has been at the palatial Athi River home since last week after his nomination of lawyer Miguna Miguna as the next Nairobi county deputy governor to take over from Polycarp Igathe.

On Sunday, he gave exclusive interviews to media houses on wide ranging issues touching on his administration, nomination of Miguna, his plans for the capital city among others.

The City Hall boss has in the past expressed fears for his life claiming that a certain government official was planning to kill him hence the reduction of the bodyguards.

But Interior cabinet secretary Fred Matiang’i on Monday defended the scaling down of security details for the governor saying that it was part of a plan to recall 5, 000 officers ‘irregularly’ attached to VIPs.

FIVE BODYGUARDS

National Police Service Spokesman Charles Owino said that the National Security Committee (NSC) approves a maximum of five bodyguards for every governor confirming that county commanders had been directed to harmonise the number of bodyguards attached to the governors to conform to the NSC’s recommendation.

It also reported that the Interior ministry is implementing a new policy that will see the number of bodyguards attached to VIPs reduced to free more police officers to serve the public.