The 2022 succession battle reared its head in Nairobi's raging politics on Friday after a politician claimed that DP William Ruto's 'hustler' brand of politics has been dismantled.
Besieged by Uhuru's lieutenants, Governor Mike Sonko is seen as a beneficiary of Ruto's political calculations to instal his trusted allies in strategic positions to power his 2022 presidential bid.
Behind-the-scenes intrigues boiled over amid threats of impeachment against embattled Sonko, fortifying reports that influential businessmen and bitter politicians who lost the Jubilee primaries are clandestinely working to wreck Ruto's political machine.
On Friday, outspoken Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu claimed Ruto's 2022 bid had been exposed by the “collapse” of Sonko's administration that heavily borrows from the DP's brand.
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In a veiled attack on Ruto, Ngunjiri who was also elected on a Jubilee ticket, challenged the DP's backers to go back to the drawing board.
"Nairobians decided to elect a ‘hustler’ as governor of the capital city of Kenya. See your life. As for those who have been selling the ‘Hustler-for-President’ brand, you will need to reconsider. It’s just been destroyed,” Ngunjiri said.
Yesterday, EALA lawmaker Simon Mbugua, a key Sonko ally, revealed a wider plot by an anti-Ruto faction to scuttle operations at City Hall.
"Those who are opposed to Ruto's presidency are in overdrive to destroy Sonko because of the support he enjoys in the city and across the country. Everybody seen to be pro-Ruto is being fought viciously by the system,'Mbugua said.
He said the clique of influential power brokers were fronting constitutional amendments to change the structure of the Executive in a bid to destroy Ruto's chances of ascending to power.
Uhuru has remained tight-lipped on the referendum debate, prompting Rift Valley leaders to demand his assurance that he would support Ruto in 2022.
On Wednesday, a defiant Sonko nominated combative lawyer Miguna Miguna as deputy governor, despite having promised publicly that he would pick a Kikuyu woman for the position.
The move sparked a storm in the President's party, which has now threatened far-reaching sanctions against the flamboyant county chief.
"If Nairobi county will not deliver on the Jubilee manifesto, they are courting disaster. Currently Nairobians are yearning for services, they are not feeling any development at all, except PR stunts,” Jubilee vice chairman David Murathe protested.
Falling just short of confirming that impeachment was on the cards, Murathe, a key Uhuru ally, said Sonko was on notice.
"The national government cannot sit and watch as Nairobians suffer. The party and its leadership is not happy at all and Nairobi must up their game. We can’t run Nairobi on tantrums,” he told the Star in an interview.
However, sources told the Star that the move by Sonko to nominate Miguna was an act of open defiance after his security detail was significantly cut on the same day.
Ironically, Interior PS Karanja Kibicho, who is in charge of the security docket, has recently been accused by the governor of being at the centre of a plot to sink him politically.
Kibicho has rubbished the claims.
"Tell Sonko to man up and address the people he wants to address but not through me. He should address that person directly because that's what men do. I am not a politician and neither would I be politicking around the DP," Kibicho protested last month.
Last week, Sonko’s ally and one of Kenya’s representatives to EALA, Simon Mbugua, similarly blamed Kibicho for his arrest and prosecution for robbery with violence over the attack on businessman Timothy Muriuki. The PS threatened to sue.
MATIANG'I
Now that matter has taken a different dimension.
The Star has established that last week, Interior CS Fred Matiang’i summoned National Police Service Commission chairman Johnston Kavuludi over alleged complicity of Sonko’s guard in the attack on Muriuki at Hotel Boulevard.
Matiang’i demanded that senior police officers be investigated for their failure to arrest suspects who were well known.
Among the top police commanders made to record statements explaining why they were unable to arrest the suspects were Ireri Kamwende and Nairobi Central Police DCI boss Kobina Cheserek under whose jurisdiction the offence was committed — a mere 400 metres from the station.
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Kavuludi did not respond to calls and text messages by the Star on the progress of the the probe directed by the CS.
However, the Star learnt that was during that meeting that an angry CS first revealed to the police chiefs allegations that some security officers had been compromised to block the arrest of the suspects who were linked to top county officials.
Sonko’s bodyguards were removed a day after the National Intelligence Service indicted police officers guarding him for the attack on Muriuki.
Police sources told the Star that mobile phone data revealed an officer in Sonko’s security team was in constant communication with the wanted suspects, even as the police issued a Sh500,000 reward for information leading to their arrest.
Sonko denied knowledge of the men, and told the police to find them.
The five later surrendered to court and police preferred charges of robbery with violence.
Yesterday, the Star learnt that Kobina and Kamwende had submitted written briefs, forwarded to DCI Kinoti, IG Joseph Boinnet and Matiang’i, declaring themselves blameless.
CAUTIOUS
Yesterday, Sonko remained defiant of the Jubilee leaders who have castigated him for nominating Miguna, but he avoided any confrontation with the President.
He resumed his attack on “one individual” he said was responsible for his woes, even as the national government moved in to take over key county functions. Garbage collection has been taken over by the Kenya Defence Forces, joined by the National Youth Service.
Sonko urged the President to extend the handshake to Miguna to enable him take up his position and help fight cartels in the city.
"The only person whom I have found able to dismantle the city cartels is none other than Miguna Miguna,” he said.
The governor said he had acted within the Constitution, which gives him the right to nominate his deputy. [The Political Parties’ Act requires candidates for governor and deputy to come from the same party or coalition, although the Constitution is silent.]
"It is for Sonko as the governor to send the name of the nominee to the county assembly. Nobody else,” the county boss said in an interview with KTN News.
"Raila and Uhuru who were bitter rivals met and talked...I am appealing to the President to forgive Miguna,” Sonko said.
"The law does not say you should pick a Jubilee or NASA member for that position and the spirit of the handshake should not be applied selectively. We are in the process of reconciliation.”
"He said if the county assembly rejects Miguna, he will submit another name. He dismissed threats of impeachment over the state of the city.
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"I am not the only one. The county government is a big team, I have CECs, MCAs,” Sonko said, arguing that he had only served for "29 days."
"I have confidence in the county assembly. I have not stolen or committed any crime," he said in response to the threats of impeachment.
"I will not be the first and the last governor to have been impeached. However, I have a good working relationship with my MCAs and let nobody fight me through them. Whoever wants to fight me, let him or her engage me directly," Sonko said.
THREATS
The governor claimed that Kibicho and Murathe were among his detractors, saying they opposed his bid for nomination on the Jubilee Party ticket during the primaries.
He said he called Kamwende to report Kibicho’s threats against him that, in his view,prompted swift withdrawal of his guards.
Sonko said his troubles with Kibicho started when he refused to honour the PS’s request to nominate a former DC from Kirinyaga as deputy governor.
"I don’t want to have a fight with someone who thinks he controls the whole world. The PS and Murathe fought me when I was running for governor but I won. They should stop intimidating me."