War of words between Governor Sonko and County Assembly Minority Whip gets uglier
The war of words between Governor Mike Sonko and the Nairobi County Assembly Minority Whip Peter Imwatok has escalated with each pointing accusing fingers at the other.
Mr Imwatok has lately fashioned himself as harshest critic of Governor Sonko’s leadership and management of county affairs while the governor wastes no time reminding Nairobi residents that the MCA is a corrupt individual.
The two do not see eye to eye with Mr Imwatok on several occasions running into disagreements and raging battles with Sonko for his stance that the county is in ‘a mess’.
Last week, the ODM MCA thrashed Sonko’s shortlisting of four women as prospective nominees for the vacant County deputy governor position as ‘usual shenanigans always employed by the governor to buy time’.
He instead called on Governor Sonko to immediately nominate a new deputy governor and ‘stop playing games with the four women’.
“We are demanding that Sonko appoints a deputy governor without the shenanigans we are witnessing. The advisory said he should nominate a person within 14 days of the position that has been vacant for the last seven months. He should stop the games,” said Mr Imwatok.
AT LOGGERHEADS
The MCA also claimed that the governor has been missing in action at City Hall for four months now and has been running the county outside Nairobi wondering why he is being paid yet he is never in his office.
This came just days after Sonko accused the second term MCA of embezzling funds meant for bursary in his ward. A claim that Mr Imwatok vehemently denied.
On Wednesday last week, during an interview with Milele FM, Governor Sonko hit back at the Minority Whip for questioning the source of his wealth saying that he made his money while the MCA was ‘still urinating in his mother’s bed’.
The recent back and forth between the two is not a new happening as they have been at loggerheads since April when Mr Imwatok sued the Governor in connection with the alleged loss of Sh1.7 billion through irregular procurement of health services for the county staff.
After the filing of the case, Sonko fired back at the MCA accusing him of being behind a cartel allegedly frustrating his development agenda for the city.
It did not end there. The City Hall boss went on.
DEATH THREATS
Speaking during Labour Day prayers at St Stephen’s ACK Church in Nairobi, Sonko accused Imwatok of frustrating his efforts to rid the city of cartels.
“He has been advocating for payment of lawyers who have not rendered any service to the county government,” he said, adding that the MCA has been working with his political detractors to paint his administration in bad light.
But Mr Imwatok retorted: “The governor is simply targeting me because I sit in the county budget committee and I have facts regarding the misappropriation of funds in an illegal insurance scheme where the county claims to have insured 14,000 employees while the actual number of staff is 12, 620 only.”
In May and early this month, Mr Imwatok gave Sonko seven days to nominate a deputy governor or face legal action, saying that the county was in a “mess” because the governor lacks a deputy to advise him.
“We are seeing how the county is, garbage everywhere, roads are pathetic and all these blames are directed at the governor. He needs a deputy to advise him and also do some of these jobs, especially supervisory,” said Imwatok.
The MCA tried to bring a ‘State of the County’ motion before the County Assembly last month to discuss the governor but his efforts were thwarted.
He, however, complained before the Assembly that ‘people known to Sonko’ have been threatening him through text messages to ‘leave the governor alone’ saying that his life is in danger.