Mike Mbuvi Sonko: Anatomy of a tragi-comic political meltdown

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has over the years presented himself as a politician whose modus operandi is dictated by the 19th century Russian revolutionist Sergey Nechayev’s phrase, “the end justifies the means”.

His meteoric rise in Kenyan politics owes much to his theatrics, camera philanthropy and near foolhardy mannerisms. All these have been the wind that has kept his political boat sailing.

To observers, Sonko is a man whose political career has been on his own hands buoyed by being streetwise enough to know exactly what to feed his support base.

Since being elected as Makadara MP in a 2010 by-election, the son of Mzee Kavulungi has never shied away from controversies.

From punching walls, putting President Uhuru Kenyatta on loudspeaker, dancing in the street, recording private conversations and frequent fallout with friends; the City Hall boss has been there, done that.

Recently, he hit global headlines by including Hennessey as part of food aid to be distributed to vulnerable families during the coronavirus crisis.

He argued that since alcohol-based sanitisers have been recommended for use to keep the spread of the virus at bay, Hennessey can also do the same magic when imbibed.

GRAFT PROBE

However, his latest outburst on Facebook on April 21, 2020 that he did not know what he signed at State House on February 25, 2020 may have left many outsiders dumbfounded.

But to the man himself, his assertion should not be alarming as that is who he is, and as long as he gets what he wants, nothing will make him change.

The governor takes things so casually to an extent that he even stunned the president in 2018 when he confessed that he had nominated fiery lawyer Miguna Miguna as his deputy just to spite unnamed senior officers from State House who had been putting pressure on him.

In September last year, he pulled another stunt vowing to resign if found culpable in a corruption probe at City Hall.

Three months later, he was arrested in Voi trying to escape from the dragnet of DCI sleuths. He was arraigned and subsequently charged over Sh357 million graft.

But rather than resign as he had said, he let out a piercingly loud cry that made us forget that he had promised to resign.

Back to his Facebook post. While responding to one of his followers, the former senator asked for forgiveness from Nairobi residents for signing the Deed of Transfer of functions, which he claimed he was never given time to go through vowing never to repeat the same mistake.

BENCHMARKING

He claimed he was not given sufficient time to read the draft, but since he was told it is a good thing on services for Nairobi people he accepted without thoroughly going through the document.

“…since I love you people of Nairobi and I have your interests at heart, I had to accept without even going through the document. Please, forgive me. I will never repeat the same mistake. In fact, I am starting the process of terminating the Deed of Transfer. I will personally go to court to have it terminated,” he said.

Interestingly, this post betrays a February 26, 2020 post on Facebook where he said that he is the one who initiated discussion with talks with the national government to transfer the functions.

This was after a fact-finding mission and benchmarking with other similar jurisdictions around the world that led to the conclusion that a metropolis, the size of Nairobi, is best served jointly by devolved units and central Government.

However, it is understandable as two months is a long time for this Bachelor's of Business Administration degree holder from Kenya Methodist University to still recall what he said.

Granted, it begs the question how Sonko was able to keep up in class to ace his coursework if he forgets that fast.

CURSE ENEMIES

The Facebook meltdown started with the former Makadara MP calling for God to punish senior government officers at the Office of the President for allegedly giving instructions to the police to vandalise sanitisation booths Sonko Rescue Team had erected in Kibra, Kencom and Buruburu.

He went on to beseech God to ensure that those who suspended his daily fumigation in Nairobi estates and slums, distribution of food, free masks and sanitisers to rot in hell and burn in hell fire, including Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho and Nairobi Regional Commander Wilson Njega.

“Reverend” Sonko likened the two to brood of vipers, which were condemned to hell in the book of Mathew 23:33, which says, “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?”

The self-proclaimed “Archbishop of City Hall” finished it off with a prayer: “Lord God, you always hear our prayers in time of need. Lord of heaven you have never disappointed me. Lord hear the prayer of your servant. Lord your word says service to humanity is service to you God…”

Nevertheless, since his arrest last year December and being forced to work from home even before coronavirus hit Kenya, Governor Sonko has been limited to social media in fighting his battles.

To him, the end surely justifies the means.