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Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko when he took the stand in the Senate impeachment trial on December 17, 2020. He was impeached the same month.

Kenya

Sonko taken to task over millions paid to lawyers from county coffers

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 17 – Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko was on Thursday hard-pressed to explain why millions of shillings from the County kitty was used to pay his personal lawyers. 

During cross-examination in his impeachment trial, Lawyer Ndegwa Njiru, who represented the County Assembly, demanded an explanation why more than Sh100 million was paid to three law firms on personal legal services.

“I want you to confirm that all this money was paid on the same day. Can you confirm that?” Ngegwa posed, in which Sonko responded “It was paid on the same day and there is no big deal in paying them their money on the same day.”

The Governor was further accused of irregularly paying Sh297 million to an Urban Renewal Housing officer.

Sonko however, denied all the claims that the money paid to his lawyers was from the County coffers.  

Sonko was defending himself from charges relied on by MCAs to impeach him, including abuse of office.

Sonko denies all the allegations and pleaded with the Senate to dismiss the motion. He accused the MCAs of being driven by malice and political motives.

He accused Minority Leader Micheal Ogada, who moved the impeachment motion, of playing politics in an “elaborate character assassination scheme”.

“The mover of my impeachment motion is dramatizing the whole process. He’s playing politics. He’s doing character assassination,” the Nairobi Governor said.

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He claimed the impeachment was mooted after he uncovered a scandal where some MCAs had been siphoning county education bursary funds through a community-based organisation that was registered as a school.

“It is true Mr. Speaker, there are cheques we refused to release because there are some MCAs who opened a fake educational institution at River Road. This has been happening even during the period under my predecessor. I unearthed this scandal in 2018,” Sonko said during the second day of his impeachment trial.

“It is a very sad story. The directors of this fake school were wives and relatives of these MCAs and they were getting cheques from even CDF accounts of various constituencies.”

MCAs were set to vote later Thursday on the fate of the Governor.

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