City rot has exposed Governor Sonko for what we feared he was

The brutal attack by thugs early in the week on former Nairobi Central Business Association chairman Timothy Muriuki is a warning not just to city residents, but to Kenyans, in general.

It shows that a line has been crossed in the democratic life of the city and our collective resolve to protect the rights of the individual and of civil society and its representatives has been boldly challenged.

It is also a warning that the despotism, reign of terror and paranoia that has taken residence inside City Hall has escaped from that building and is now walking on the streets of the capital.

VIOLENCE
City residents and its government are in danger of constructing an abusive relationship — just like a helpless wife in the face of a drunkard.

He shows flashes of love and kindness but is in the main a mean and violent bully; the wife clings to these brief moments of humanity in the hope that the person she used to know and love will return.

But he never will; abuse only gets worse.

The events of the week are a confirmation that Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko is really the man we feared he was — unqualified to run the city by virtue of a mercurial temperament and a man whose grasp of democracy and respect for the rights of those who disagree with him is weak.

IMPUNITY
The attack on Mr Muriuki was the ultimate indignity, the reason why we have fought so hard and for so long to have a free society.

That the attack went on for a long time, a few metres from Central Police Station, in a city which is allegedly policed, is an affront to all decency, an intolerable aggravation after the attack on a civil society activist by aides of Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua only weeks ago and is an escalation of impunity.

The folks who attacked Mr Muriuki did so in broad daylight because they probably thought they had the protection of Mr Sonko.

And Mr Sonko would only extend such protection if he, too, thought that he was protected by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.

It is violation of the sanctity of our citizenship.

OPINION
Were it not for journalists and kind guards, the goons, who were roughing up and dragging Mr Muriuki on the muddy road, were likely to inflict serious injury on him.

And for what? There were fears that he was going to speak ill of Mr Sonko at a press conference.

As it turned out, he wasn’t even going to do that.

But even if he were, isn’t that perfectly within the rights of any Kenyan to criticise the people they elected?

What is happening at City Hall? Why are Kenyans being beaten in the streets for holding a press conference?

Why is the governor quoting texts sent and received by his staff? Why does he have access to private communication?

GARBAGE
I know when our sister publication, the Sunday Nation, wrote about Mr Sonko, he made serious allegations against them in an attempt at impugning their integrity and he will probably do the same to me.

But I voted for Mr Sonko, this city is my home and I am angry at how mismanaged it is.

We used to complain about homeless families; today, they are so many, so rampant, so uncontrolled that they have sex in the street.

The city is unbelievably filthy. In places such as Juja Road, garbage blocks the road.

VOTERS
Traffic is such a nightmare that Murang’a Road, Kipande Road, Prof Wangari Maathai Avenue and many others are basically parking lots.

When it rains, as it did on Wednesday afternoon, our children left school at 5.30pm and got home, 10 kilometres away, at 10 in the night.

The city is descending into anarchy and the governor has no clue how to govern.

At the last election, voters were confronted by a choice between a governor whose potential never shone through, a man they trusted and felt he had let them down, and basically a collection of undesirables: A frothing radical, a vain man backed by a faceless ethnic cabal and an upstart senator admired for his ability to transcend tribe in a city where voters are very conscious of it.

Many decent city residents voted to give Mr Sonko a chance because they did not like the contempt with which the other candidates regarded him due to his modest background and poor academic qualifications.

He, too, is letting them down. If he does not get a grip and start providing solutions for the city, not only will his honeymoon be over, most probably so will his term.

* * *
Kenya’s media marked World Press Freedom Day in a terrible climate.

Battered by civil society, bloggers, social media warriors, internet perverts, counterfeiters, self-inflicted wounds and a government whose hatred for the free press is palpable, Kenyan media are limping.

They are in a worse state than they have ever been in my lifetime.

Yet, there is no democracy without a free press.

NGOs, with their inherent and endemic corruption, funny agendas, funny funders, nepotism, corruption and bad governance, are not an alternative to good, honest and courageous media.

If something has gone wrong with the media, let’s fix it.

It can’t be replaced by bloggers or activists, whose function is quite different.

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