This archive report was first published on 23 November 2019.
On November 23, 2019, Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko found himself in a precarious situation as the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) tightened the noose around him. The Prison Service had retrieved his files for perusal, sparking a chain of events that would ultimately impact his political career.
Speaker Beatrice Elachi, who had previously been critical of Sonko's past, was overheard expressing her excitement at the prospect of his files being reviewed. She had thrown a house party to celebrate her assumption to office, and her enthusiasm was palpable.
With Sonko's confessed criminal record and the possibility of him sneaking out of Shimo la Tewa prison, it was likely that should he be arrested, the past would come calling, and he would automatically be denied bail.
According to sources close to the Nairobi County Assembly speaker, the government had seemed reluctant to summon Sonko and question him about his past. The move by the Prison Service to cross-examine his file, therefore, meant that nothing was supposed to be left unaddressed.
Elachi, who had previously pointed out that Sonko had escaped jail and it was within the public knowledge, had formed part of the reasons she was hounded out of office in a questionable impeachment process.
However, she had mastered the game of pretense and pretending to be a good ally to the besieged Governor, got herself reinstated back to the assembly.
Her celebratory house party had exposed her still holding on to her initial stand on integrity, a close ally being quoted insisting that it was both odd and harmful to the citizens to have such a person of questionable moral character, a jail-break, being in charge of an important city like Nairobi.
