How the plan to impeach Sonko was hatched

That ousted Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko was swimming against the currents was evident when he took on President Uhuru Kenyatta, in a series of verbal tirades, including sarcastically terming him ‘Nairobi’s super senator’.

Sonko’s other challenge was the war he waged against the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), headed by military man Major General Abdalla Badi, and his refusal to sign requisite budget documents that starved the entity established by President Kenyatta to oversee four critical functions transferred early this year.

The Sonko brigade had retreated to Kwale County, ostensibly to scuttle his ouster, by denying the Thursday afternoon session the requisite two-thirds majority…

While the governor insisted he had the numbers, plotters of his ouster had hatched a plan to beat him at his own game, County Assembly Speaker Benson Mutura’s ruling allowing online voting being the game changer.

Sonko allies claimed their credentials had been used to log them in without their consent, and even voted in support of the impeachment motion.

Sonko had two days ago spoken about the likelihood of an online voting process, that he termed illegal.

“The law is very clear even the Standing Orders of the Assembly that electronic voting is not allowed. Even the manner in which the Speaker was elected and way the budget was passed was through zoom. It is not in the law,” claimed Sonko.

But the governor’s ouster was a matter of when, not if, his recent altercations with the national government, and specifically his litany of direct attacks on President Kenyatta consolidated the plan to kick him out. Sonko accused the President and key state operatives of hijacking his governorship, by branding him incompetent.

His refusal to assent to the county budget, that had allocated the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Ksh. 37 billion opened a new war front. NMS, established by President Kenyatta after Sonko signed off four key functions in the city, remains financially starved, after the governor stuck to his guns.

But movers of the impeachment seemed resolute, with the backing of national government machinery, in ousting the flamboyant governor.

Sonko’s fate now lies with the Senate, where handshake politics will yet again be at play, as witnessed in the impeachment processes against Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru and ousted Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu.