Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko’s leadership woes keep piling up, with reports that the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) wants him back in jail to complete his sentence.
People Daily learnt that EACC’s move is based on the premise that the governor allegedly escaped jail in 1998, and should serve his full term.
The county boss, who is also under investigations over claims of corruption in his administration, is said to have escaped from Shimo La Tewa Prison in Mombasa on April 6, 1998 at night to attend his mother’s burial, Saumu Mukami.
He had reportedly been jailed for a year.
“This is such a straightforward thing that will entail him going back to jail to complete his sentence,” a source from the EACC told People Daily.
The governor has been grilled by anti-graft officers on claims that he failed to disclose information about his “criminal” past and alleged pending cases when he was seeking clearance to run for the Nairobi governor’s seat in 2017.
Files at the Mombasa-based prison show a man called Gideon Mbuvi Kioko, who had been jailed for six months for jumping bail, is still on the run.
The man, suspected to be Sonko had been accused of forging documents with the intention of selling a piece of land belonging to a former police commissioner.
In February 2000, the Mr Kioko was sentenced to serve 12 months in prison for obtaining money under false pretence. He reportedly served for nine months.
He then moved to the High Court seeking a revision of the sentence over claims he was sick and Justice Samuel Oguk, now deceased, released him.
“The applicant has been distinguished as HIV-positive patient and this has been confirmed by the medical evidence on record. I will allow this application and hereby reduce the sentence that was imposed on the applicant to the period already served to ensure the applicant immediate release from prison unless otherwise lawfully held,” read court documents.
But the county boss, in his defence, on Sunday termed the EACC investigation a witch-hunt given the commission has cleared him on several occasions — when he successfully ran for Makadara MP, Senate and govenor’s seats.
“The EACC has in the past two months summoned me five times and in these probes, they have found nothing and that is why they are now looking into my past,” Mr Sonko said through an aide.
