The recently leaked audio conversation between Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko and Woman Representative Esther Passaris had, in part, a discussion on how much Sonko was to pay to have a petition against him dropped.
During an interview with JKLive on Citizen TV, Sonko revealed that he gave Passaris Sh10million for the petition challenging his gubernatorial elections victory to be withdrawn.
"She (Passaris) swindled 10 million from me when there was a petition against me at the High Court. She told me to let the petition be dealt with outside the court and I agreed because, in law, there is an avenue for an outside court settlement," he said
Sonko further alleged that Passaris wanted Sh200 million to pay those the petitioners, an offer he refused as he thought it could be better to go for a re-run rather than paying that large amount of money.
"First she said she needs Sh200 million to go and pay the petitioners. I refused and told her 200 million is a lot of money I better go back to people so that we have a re-run," Sonko added.
According to Sonko, the idea of wanting the petitions dropped was a show of goodwill from Passaris and it would save him a lot of time that he could have, otherwise, spend in court battling the petition.
He, however, added that he financed Passaris' campaign with a lot of money.
"I gave the 10 million to her in cash to pay the petitioners because I wanted time to start my work(as governor), she swindled the money and I forgave her. He never paid the likes of Moroko (petitioners) because the case proceeded I won the case," Sonko noted.