Mike Sonko: Nairobi governor arrested over Kenya corruption scandal

The governor of Nairobi was arrested on Friday shortly after
Kenya’s chief prosecutor ordered he be detained to face charges for
economic crimes.

Governor Mike Sonko is the latest in a string of top officials
to be hauled in on corruption charges as Kenya battles to clamp
down on rampant graft.

“EACCKenya confirms that Nairobi City County Governor Mike Sonko
Mbuvi has been arrested while escaping arrest at a road block in
Voi,” the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) posted on
Twitter.

@EACCKenya^[1] confirms that Nairobi
City County Governor Mike Sonko Mbuvi has been arrested while
escaping arrest at a road block in Voi and is being transferred to
Nairobi to face charges of corruption and economic crime.

— EACC (@EACCKenya) December
6, 2019^[2]

Sonko and other country officials are accused by public
prosecutor Noordin Haji of having benefitted from irregular
procurement and payments of $3.5m (3.1 million euros).

Haji said he had sufficient evidence to prosecute Sonko and
other county officials for “unlawful acquisition of public
property, money laundering and other economic crimes.”

“I have therefore ordered for the immediate arrest and
arraignment in court of the Governor of Nairobi Hon. Mike Mbuvi
Sonko and other persons,” Haji said in a statement earlier on
Friday.

When, in 2017, the ruling party chose populist Mike Sonko as its
candidate for Nairobi’s gubernatorial poll, it was seen as a
maverick move. Sonko is a controversial politician who has spent
time in jail and has had to deny allegations of illegal activities,
including drug trafficking.

Haji said his investigation into Sonko and his officials had
been challenging “because of the repeated attempts by the accused
to obstruct the course of the investigations by deploying
intimidation tactics”.

Corruption battle
Kenya has for decades battled the scourge of corruption, and
President Uhuru Kenyatta – like many presidents before him – has
vowed to combat graft.

Dozens of top executives and government officials have been
charged since Kenyatta’s 2017 re-election, including sitting
Finance Minister Henry Rotich who was in July charged over an
alleged multi-million dollar corruption scandal.

Rotich and nearly 20 other top officials from the treasury and
other departments were arrested after an investigation into the
alleged loss of 21 billion Kenyan shillings ($203m) on ghost dam
construction projects.

The finance minister, a Harvard-trained economist, pleaded not
guilty to a slew of charges that included but limited to: failure
to comply with guidelines relating to procurement, conspiracy to
defraud the public and financial misconduct.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES