Sonko hits back after Uhuru confesses to orchestrating his impeachment
Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has hit back at President Uhuru Kenyatta for criticising his leadership, calling the Head of State “a failed President with nothing to show for eight years in power”.
This comes after President Kenyatta admitted that he had instigated the removal of Sonko as the city governor over his confrontational leadership style that risked bringing services in the capital to a grinding halt.
Stung by the criticism, the former City Hall boss told off the president for focusing on the failures of his administration rather than his own.
The former Makadara MP challenged Mr Kenyatta to instead own up to Kenyans that he had allegedly been incompetent and incapable of running a country from the first day, accusing him of only succeeding in holding independent institutions at ransom while harassing and tormenting leaders who differ with him.
In a scathing attack on the Head of State, Mr Sonko criticised President Kenyatta’s administration for having nothing to show apart from unprecedented unemployment, poverty and hopelessness in millions of Kenyans despite borrowing over Sh8 trillion shillings in the last eight years.
He went on to point out that Mr Kenyatta has now resorted to selling “false hope” to Kenyans in the name of the handshake and the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) as promises by his administration remained a mirage.
“It is therefore ridiculous for the President to allude to failure of any administration, yet he has presided over the worst administration in the history of Kenya. Indeed Chief Justice (retired) David Maraga was not wrong when he suggested that the President should have been impeached by now,” said Mr Sonko, in a statement.
The former City Hall chief further dismissed the President’s claim that he made him the governor of Nairobi, saying he was not his appointee as he was validly elected by close to one million Nairobi residents, and that he garnered more votes that the President himself in the city.
Mr Sonko defended his short reign at City Hall saying that despite inheriting a rundown city, he cracked down on the cartels that had held Nairobi hostage for decades, sealed all the looting avenues by digitising revenue collection, and Nairobians began to enjoy services once again without having to offer a bribe.
Together with development partners, he said, his administration oversaw the construction of 140 kilometres of roads in under two years, building of three new fire stations in Waithaka, Kangundo road and Ruaraka; elevating Pumwani Maternity Hospital to a world-class facility as well as construction of Karandini, New Wakulima, Mwariro, Westlands and City Park ultra-modern markets.
“The list is long, and I am extremely proud of my achievements in the first two years, before the cartels from State House and the President’s family hatched a scheme to disrupt my administration by endless summonses by their puppet EACC, culminating in my dramatic arrest on December 6, 2019 over frivolous allegations,” he said.
Mr sonko also criticised President Kenyatta for resorting to addressing a section of Kenyans in his mother tongue, excluding millions of other Kenyans yet he is a symbol of national unity.
“It is shameful for a sitting president to lie to a Section of Kenyans through his native language, in the hope that other communities will never understand what he said,” Mr Sonko said.