The Senate voted to remove Mr Mike Sonko from office as Nairobi governor, ending his 40-month chaotic reign at City Hall.
Majority of the senators (27) voted to uphold the impeachment of Mr Sonko on all the four charges brought against him by the Nairobi County Assembly, which had impeached him on December 3.
The defence by 16 senators, mostly allied to Deputy President William Ruto, proved insufficient to rescue Mr Sonko. Two others abstained — Mutula Kilonzo Jr (Makueni) and Johnson Sakaja (Nairobi). The charges against Mr Sonko were gross violation of the constitution, abuse of office, gross misconduct and crimes under national law.
“The effect of the vote is that Governor Mike Sonko of Nairobi County stands impeached,” Speaker Ken Lusaka declared last night after the two-day sitting.
The removal from office of the governor paves the way for the County Assembly Speaker Ben Mutura to take over on an acting capacity until elections to elect a new governor and deputy governor are held within the next 60 days. The Senate had begun the year in January by sending home Ferdinand Waititu who was ousted as Kiambu governor.
He had fought back allegations of corruption during a lengthy trial by the Senate that stretched into the night yesterday as he tried to persuade Senators to dismiss his impeachment charges.
He dismissed claims by the County Assembly that he had diverted millions of shillings in bursary funds and also shrugged off another accusation that his daughter had travelled to the US at the expense of the county government.
While the governor admitted that his administration had allocated Sh297.5 million for the bursary fund in the 2019/20 financial year, he told senators that the funds had not been released from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) after schools were closed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic last March.
Taking the stand to defend himself, Mr Sonko further denied he had used county funds to fly his wife and daughter to the US for the First Ladies’ conference in New York, claiming, the trip was sponsored by the national government, which met part of the costs.
The governor told the Senate that the only taxpayer expense his daughter and wife incurred during the trip was the air ticket. He refuted evidence adduced by the Assembly’s Minority Leader Michael Ogada on the trip.
“We catered for the expenses of the trip,” Mr Sonko said. The governor is facing charges of gross violation of the constitution, abuse of office, gross misconduct and crimes under national law.
The MCAs accuse the governor of poor use of conditional grants from the national government. They also accuse him of persistently intimidating, harassing and molesting senior staff, including blackmailing his county executive committee members and chief officers with one-year contracts, whose renewal he has undertaken arbitrarily.
This, the assembly said, had left the officers jittery about their employment and had created a climate of fear, uncertainty and despondency.
In his evidence on Wednesday, Mr Ogada, who had moved the motion of impeachment at the Assembly, had claimed that Nairobi’s taxpayers had paid Sh4 million for the governor’s daughter, Saumu Agnes Mbuvi, to take the trip to New York in 2018.
“The trip was initiated by the national government, which met part of the costs, and not the county government,” he said while being cross-examined by the lawyer representing the county assembly, Mr Peter Milimo.
Ms Joyce Kinyanjui, in charge of imprests at the county, had told the Senate on Wednesday that she had released Sh2.6 million as an allowance for Ms Mbuvi. The imprest warrant — a document used to pay public servants travel allowances — had captured Ms Mbuvi as an employee of the county with the designation of a ward administrator.
Ms Kinyanjui told the House that she had withdrawn the money from Cooperative Bank, City Hall Branch, and handed it over to one of the governor security personnel, identified as Mr Christopher Mbwaga Onguso, who picked the money on behalf of Ms Mbuvi.
She, however, pointed out that the governor’s daughter has never been an employee of the county, and rejected claims she had received Sh2.6 million in allowances for the trip.
But Sonko rejected the alleged designation of his daughter captured in the imprest warrant arguing that it did not originate from his office even though it was signed by Ms Kinyanjui, who testified against the governor on Wednesday.
“I’m not the author of the document,” Mr Sonko replied during the cross examination by Mr Milimo, even as he insisted his daughter was a woman just like the people who made the trip.
Mr Sonko attacked Mr Ogada, accusing him of dramatising the issue of bursaries to protect a powerful cartel of MCAs who had been skimming cash meant for needy children’s learning through publication of fake cheques.
