Sonko skips town and starts new political life

Former Nairobi Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko during an interview with Standard on Sunday, April 24, 2022 [David Njaaga, Standard]

Political maverick Mike Sonko has done what we all do when the going gets hard: he has skipped town to go try his luck elsewhere. He’s staking a claim in Mombasa’s gubernatorial race. This follows his ouster at City Hall.

One moment, he was busy munching sausages washed down by cognac; next, he was scanning mshikaki at Mtito Andei, on the night bus to Mombasa! I exaggerate.

But it’s no exaggeration that Sonko is teaching politicians to think of themselves as Kenyans first, not as ethnic power barons.  Secondly, they should not rely on narrow ethnic support base to win elections. That’s why Sonko targets large, cosmopolitan metropoles, as opposed to rural enclaves.

Third, Sonko’s return to Mombasa disproves claims that he fled from Shimo la Tewa Maximum Security Prison, where he was serving time for scamming a woman.

Americans, who have been spreading very bad rumours about Sonko, should invite him to their country and do a thorough body search. Sonko is as clean as a whistle—and he records just about everything, especially in the dark.

Sonko now says he intends to energise Mombasa using Sonko Rescue Centre by cleaning up the coastal city. This is surprising given that he had gone to court to challenge the freezing of his accounts. He said he was broke.

But now that elections it’s election time, Sonko has just enough to keep Sonko Rescue operations going, and take aim at the polls. That’s Sonko for you, the master of makeover and associated trades