The arrest and prosecution of Nairobi governor Mike Sonko appear to have opened the proverbial Pandora box about his controversial life, including his previous criminal life.
It is worth noting that the county boss has openly admitted that he was previously, in 2001, held at the Shimo La Tewa and Kamiti Prisons for months after being convicted for a crime.
The Star reports that the county boss' claims, from 2001, do not match the actual situation, including the excuses he used to leave prison before completing his sentence.
For instance, in an affidavit filed before Nairobi High Court Judge Samuel Oguk in 2001, Sonko claimed that he was suffering from epilepsy, HIV and chronic tuberculosis, which don't heal.
On June 7, 2019, however, he rubbished the claims and even produced medical slips to confirm that he is of sound health. He proceeded to sue the paper for defamation.
Similarly, before his release by Justice Oguk three months to the completion of his sentence, he told the court that he was a son of a single mother, also died while he was in prison.
“I have undergone a lot of suffering. I lost my mother while in prison. She was a single parent and my only hope. My younger brother and sister are still in school and now depend on me. My wife was thrown out of the house and all the belonging seized,” Sonko said in an affidavit quoted by the Star.
But this contradicts the fact that his father, Gideon Kivanguli, only died in 2015 and was buried at his (Sonko) Mua home.
Sonko is now facing charges of corruption, following his arrest in Voi on Friday.
At the same time, Shimo La Tewa prison authorities claim that he escaped from the police while receiving treatment at the Coast Provincial Hospital in Mombasa.
Consequently, the prison has demanded that he goes back, to go complete his term.