Described by Dauti Kahura in The Elephant as flashy, flamboyant, jewellery-clad gung-ho, Robin Hood type of a Mafia don, Mike Mbuvi Gideon Kioko Sonko burst into the public limelight in 2010 in a by-election preceded by the nullification of the election of Dick Wathika as Makadara MP.
Thereafter, he clinched the Senate seat in 2013, riding on the back of the majority poor languishing in the sprawling slums of the city. He even polled more than the two leading presidential candidates then – Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga – in Nairobi.