Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko on
Monday confronted his son-in-law amid domestic violence allegations after his
daughter made a distressing call to her parents.
In a video shared on Sonko’s social
media, he rushed to his daughter’s home following her appeal for help.
According to the clip, the dispute allegedly began innocuously, a simple question about breakfast, but escalated rapidly
into a physical altercation.
In an audio recording, Sonko’s
daughter tells her mother, “I’m not okay… I just asked for breakfast, and I have
been slapped twice. I didn’t have money, and I’ve been telling him the kids are
hungry.”
When Sonko arrived, he is seen
confronting his son-in-law, but he also repeatedly orders his security team and
aides to refrain from violence, making it clear that retaliation wouldn’t
resolve anything.
During their exchange, Sonko claimed he had been financially supporting his daughter’s household.
He stated that he was covering rent,
paying school fees, buying groceries and even provided a Range Rover for the
family.
After the confrontation, he left
with his daughter and delivered a firm warning, telling his son-in-law never to
lay a hand on her again.
In a powerful statement, Sonko
expressed his heartbreak, not just as a father, but as someone deeply disturbed
by the broader issue of domestic abuse.
“Today, we received a distress call from our
daughter that shook us to the core, her voice trembling, her spirit broken,” he
said.
“As a parent, nothing prepares you
for the moment your child reaches out in fear or desperation. I acted
immediately because no mother or father can sit still when their child is
hurting,” Sonko said.
He used the incident to shine a
light on the hidden suffering many Kenyans endure.
“If my own daughter can face
harassment in her home, what about the countless young women and men in Kenya
who suffer silently, with no one to defend them?” he asked.
Sonko urged couples to deal with
conflict through conversation, not violence.
“Marriage is built through storms
and sunshine, but when challenges turn into violence, when love turns into
fear, the very foundation is shaken,” he said.
“My plea to young couples is this:
choose peace, choose dialogue before anger. Violence destroys the heart, the
home and the future.”
The episode has ignited a wave of
discussion on social media, with many condemning the violence and calling for
greater awareness and support around domestic abuse in modern relationships.
“As a father of daughters, let’s be very clear: financial
dynamics in a relationship never justify violence, not shouting, not
intimidation and absolutely not hitting your partner. Abuse is abuse, no matter
who earns more,” Octopizzo said.
“We must stop normalising narratives that excuse
Gender-Based Violence (GBV) or reduce relationships to financial transactions.
Everyone deserves peace, dignity and protection in every home, in every
community. GBV has no place in our society.”
An X user, Preston, added, “Nothing in my bone would make me
raise a hand against a woman. Stop fishing for excuses for GBV! Whatever the
conflict was, violence is never the way”.
“This whole situation points to a deeply toxic relationship
marked by patterns consistent with GBV. You and I both know that under normal
circumstances, no one would dare lay a hand on the daughter of a prominent figure
and in this case, Mike Sonko,” Chris Sambu commented.
