A few minutes to noon on Monday, former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko was training as a boxer alongside one-time world super-bantamweight champion Fatuma Zarika.
He posted a video of him sparring with a trainer while wearing boxing gloves, looking every bit a greenhorn.
“Mangumi ziko karibu kuanza. Huyo Ngatia wenu akuje sasa (Blows are about to start. May that Ngatia [Richard, aspirant for Nairobi governorship] of yours come now),” he wrote.
But on the next day, a knock-out political blow landed on him from 12,150 kilometres away. Boxing enthusiasts may call it the left hook, known to be one of the most devastating punches in the ring.
This was when the US government banned him alongside his wife and children from travelling to its territory for his involvement in “significant” corruption.
But, like a boxer subdued but not ready to throw in the towel, Mr Sonko returned a number of punches at Uncle Sam when he had a press conference in Mombasa later that Tuesday.
“I’m a very small person compared to you, a whole superpower in the world. You should go for Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, just the same way you went for Osama bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein,” he charged.
At another point, he said he is not even eager to visit them.
“I went there when I was governor. I have not applied to go to the US; I don’t know why they issued this. I’ve never applied to go to the US. I’ll go to watch World Cup in Qatar. Why should I go to the US? I can go to China and do shopping there. Why should I go to the US? Let them deal with Russia and Putin,” he said.
He also believes that the residence of the US ambassador has something to do with the decision, because the envoy is likely to have “made friends” with one of the people interested in being Nairobi governor in August.
“I ask the American government to investigate your ambassador, who is a friend of [redacted] in Nairobi,” said Mr Sonko. “I’m wondering why all this has to happen just a day after I’d declared that I’m going to defend my [Nairobi governorship] seat.”
In boxing terms, Mr Sonko might see this as re-match with Uncle Sam because they had a bout some years back when the politician was accused of dealing in drugs. Mr Sonko says the US government probed him over drugs and found “nothing”.
“I even visited the Interpol and FBI offices to confirm whether the allegations you gave before that I was a drug dealer were true,” he told the US.
“You are the same people who cleared me to go and give a speech to the United Nations General Assembly.
“Now they have come with very fake new allegations that I have been issuing tenders to my family. They should verify the allegations,” added the politician.
However, Mr Sonko’s name featured in a report tabled in Parliament in 2010 by then-Internal Security Minister George Saitoti that cited high-profile Kenyans being investigated over involvement in narcotics.
And as much as Mr Sonko protests that he is not being charged in court for graft but for money laundering “because a friend or two deposited a million or two in my account”, part of the charges in a Sh357 million criminal case he is facing touch on corruption and embezzlement of public funds.
“I am facing charges of money laundering; not giving out tenders to any of my proxies or my family,” claimed Mr Sonko in his rant shortly after the news of the ban emerged.
And in the words of Mr Eric Watnic, the counsellor for public affairs at US embassy, Nairobi, whatever the outcome of that case, the decision might not change.
A man who gained fame for punching at walls to register anger during protests and generally being pushy and gutsy like a heavyweight boxer, Mr Sonko now faces political oblivion given his 2020 impeachment that has been confirmed by the High Court and the Court of Appeal.
He held three different elective positions in the city between 2010 and 2020, but his impeachment may be the uppercut blow that stops from getting clearance to run for Nairobi governor as he is planning to; though he says he has not exhausted all appeal channels.
With the US entry ban, Mr Sonko now cuts a figure of a boxer pinned against a corner by a much stronger opponent, with a bloodied nose and all.
