Obscene phone calls by governor return to haunt him at House session

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko’s derogatory phone calls and statements returned to haunt him during the impeachment motion hearing with his accusers presenting him as a person not fit to hold office.

Videos and audio clips were played to the senators showing Sonko engaging individuals opposed to him in bad and disparaging exchanges.

This prompted a section of senators to interject, saying the words uttered were offensive in nature and requested that they be aired in camera, a request Speaker Ken Lusaka turned down.

Giving his evidence in support of the motion, leader of Minority Michael Ogada (pictured) told senators that the governor has consistently presented himself as a person unfit to hold such an office of honor.

But Sonko’s defence team moved to dismantle the evidence given by playing a video which showed a section of members of the county assembly denying participating in the impeachment motion.

Ogada, who sponsored the impeachment motion against Sonko at the County Assembly, further explained how the governor made it difficult for members of the executive to perform their duties.

“The governor has a tendency of shuffling his chief executive committee members without notice.

In some cases, you may find a CEC being downgraded to a chief officer. This is Sonko for you,” Ogada told senators.

“Sacking and redeploying is the order of the day at City Hall. Most of those in office have never been confirmed.”

He further demonstrated how members of Sonko’s cabinet were being forced to travel all the way to Machakos County to his Mua Home for official meetings.

Sonko, he claimed, diverted Sh622 million which was a conditional grant was diverted to other uses.

However, Ogada found himself on the receiving end after he failed to explain why he received Sh823,000 as allowances to travel to Dubai but did not.

He was put to task by Sonko’s lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui as to why he failed to return the money having not made the trip. 

“Have you returned a penny of that money?” asked lawyer Kinyanjui who also asked the witness to confirm that he had been summoned by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations over the matter.

The witness hesitantly said he was yet to return the money as he also denied having been summoned by the DCI.

Ogada went on to explain how Sonko misused county funds on personal arrangements where in one incident organized for her daughter’s trip to the USA under the tag of a Ward representative.

“The governor paid a first-class ticket for the girl and went on to give her highlife in the USA where she used choppers to traverse states all at the expense of the tax payers’ funds,” Ogada claimed.

A video tape was also played to discount claims by Sonko that he was intoxicated when he signed for the transfer of functions to the National Metropolitan Services.