Nairobi Senator Mike Mbuvi Sonko. Photo: Courtesy of Mike Sonko Facebook page
Last night a section of my critics were burning midnight oil digging deep on my perceived links with the MRC and MRC court case in a Mombasa court.
I wish to shade light on this and to respond as follows.
In 2012 when I was the Makadara MP, there was a lot of insecurity and tension in the Coast region when the MRC were fighting for historical injustices including land rights violations.
During those days, demos were all over the coast and at some point leaflets were circulated all over the Coast region that up-country people must leave the Coast and return back to their motherland.
I vividly recall an incident along Kenyatta Avenue in Mombasa where several school and college buses from Nairobi and upcountry were stoned at and partly torched. After all this, almost all suspected MRC leaders and their families including school girls were arrested, arraigned in court and later taken to prison.
While they were languishing in prison with no one to bail them out, the tension was again building up after a group of youth threatened to take laws into their own hands and to disrupt daily activities and peace until the suspects would be released.
As a leader, a peace maker and for the sake of peace since our brothers and sisters from Nairobi and up country majority of whom were domestic tourists, school and college students who used to visit various historical sites and beaches at the coast, I found that it was necessary for peace to be maintained at the coast and it is at this point that I decided to bail the suspects out but on condition that they must preach and maintain peace for a period of more than 5 years.
As per the law, they all executed a peace agreement in presence of all Human Rights bodies who were also pushing for their release.
Unfortunately, when they were out on bond and after attending court sessions for over 5 years, the chairman of the group Mr. Hamisi Mwanuadzi has since disappeared and has not been attending court proceedings.
Some unconfirmed reports divulged that he might be dead but there's nothing to prove this yet.
Personally, I have been attending court proceedings as a surety to him and to show cause why I should not be punished for failing to produce the suspect as provided for in law but it should not be misinterpreted that by constantly attending the court proceedings to mean I am a suspect.
So my lovely critics in politics must know that I am not a suspect in this case and that I have never been charged for the same but stood surety to the accused.
I want to categorically state here that I did not bail out the said suspects for any political mileage but it's in my heart and blood that I do not want to see any Kenyan suffer while God has given me the capacity to help wherever I can.
During the Githurai/Kasarani al-Shabaab bus attack, the drivers and conductors of the buses were also charged and taken to prison for failing to conduct a search on the passengers before boarding the bus.
I found that it was wrong for them to be jailed since they were not security officers to detect and arrest the suspected al-Shabaab gang. I bailed all of the drivers and conductors out of prison.
In the same spirits of standing with the rights of Kenyans, I bailed out a 100-year- old widow from Embu GK Prison and another 120-year old widow from Migori GK Prison.
Recently I bailed out a crime buster police officer from Kasarani who was an expert in eliminating armed gangsters who used to terrorise wananchi in Kasarani, Roysambu, and Githurai.
Those linking me with hooliganism and allege that I serve hooligans should know that the people I serve and Kenyans, in general, are not hooligans and nothing will not stop me from serving them wherever they are.