Politics

Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko is sick and has been admitted in the hospital.

His admission comes ahead of two court rulings that are scheduled for today.

Sonko was admitted with stomach complications ahead of the key court rulings.

Officials aware of the developments said Sonko was rushed to hospital from Gigiri police station aboard an ambulance and admitted there.

He was admitted and is in a stable condition, an official who saw him said.

The ex-governor was set to know if he will be freed after the rulings.

A Kiambu Magistrate’s court will first rule on his application to be released on bond in a multiple case of assault and robbery he is facing.

A Kahawa West court was also expected to make a ruling on an application by the police to be allowed to detain Sonko for 30 days as they investigate terror-related charges.

His legal team is concerned with reports that police plan to revive old cases that they believe were settled.

Over the weekend, plainclothes officers from the Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) arrested seven of his aides, adding the list to nine of the aides that have been put in police custody after being linked to terrorism activities.

Sonko’s woes seem to be far from over, after the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) commenced investigations into how he allegedly faked his death in 2005.

Besides probing Sonko’s “alleged death”, the DCI has also launched further investigations into several past cases, that the former flamboyant governor is linked to.

According to reports, the detectives are said to have begun the probe following a request from Shimo La Tewa Prison where Sonko is said to have escaped from.

“Authorities at the facility wrote to the DCI requesting for investigations to establish the authenticity of the death certificate. They have requested that Sonko should be taken back there to complete his sentence term should the death certificate be established to be fake,” a well-placed source told a local daily.

“We have re-opened several files on him that are under investigations. I am however not in a position to give the fine details of the cases,” DCI boss Kinoti said.

Kinoti was, however, quick to dismiss claims by Sonko’s allies and friends that he is being persecuted for allegedly reading from a different political script with the powers that be.

“DCI is a professional entity that conducts its investigations in accordance with the law. We are completely non-partisan in politics,” Kinoti said.

Sonko is expected to be questioned over a fake death certificate bearing his name, and purportedly issued on June 20, 2005. The cause of death was indicated as cardio-pulmonary arrest.

Sonko’s escape from Shimo La Tewa facility has always been a source of heated debate between himself and State authorities.

Various accounts indicate that Sonko escaped from the maximum prison some 20 years ago.

He is said to have been released in 2001 after allegedly claiming that he was HIV positive and epileptic.

Sonko was released by now deceased High Court judge Samuel Oguk from prison three months before completing the one year sentence after claiming he was HIV positive.

Later in a sworn affidavit, Sonko claimed that he was suffering from chronic tuberculosis and peptic ulcers.

“Currently, I am admitted at the prison hospital and my chances of survival are very minimal, hence seek to be released on medical grounds or in compliance of the Presidential Amnesty Exercise dated 12/12/2000,” Sonko stated in an affidavit dated 2/2/2001.

But in 2011, then Commissioner of Prisons said at a press conference that Sonko escaped from lawful custody on April 16, 1998, while he was admitted at the Coast Provincial General Hospital.

Now a death certificate under the name, Kioko Gidion Mbuvi, the name he held before changing it in 2012, has become the subject of investigations by the DCI.

Sources at the Registrar of Persons told the People Daily that Sonko officially changed his name in a Gazette Notice No 1607 of February 10, 2012.

“Notice is hereby given that by a deed poll dated 1 February 2012, and duly registered by our client, formerly known as Mbuvi Gidion Kioko, formally and absolutely renounced and abandoned the use of his former names and in lie therefore assumed and adopted the name Mbuvi Gidion Kioko Mike Sonko,” the Gazette Notice read in part. 

The death certificate indicates that Kioko Gidion Mbuvi died of a cardiacpulmonary arrest – a sudden, unexpected loss of heart function, breathing and consciousness. 

He was initially summoned following his indirect admission of culpability,  when a fortnight ago, while in Rithumitu in Dagoreti, Nairobi county, he said he together with Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho and others, printed Orange Democratic Movement T-shirts and bought vehicles which they later burnt.

Sources at DCI said detectives are yet to commence investigations into his alleged culpability in the 2017 violence.