A day with Sonko after Uhuru city takeover

 

A call came in at 9.45am to postpone our interview with Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko which had been scheduled for 10am last Friday.

We are told to dash to Mbagathi Hospital instead of the governor’s private office in Upper Hill where the interview was to take place.

The diary has suddenly changed. He is heading to Mbagathi Hospital at 11am to launch an outpatient centre.

Health is one of the critical functions Sonko signed away at State House in the presence of President Uhuru Kenyatta in February.

The others are Planning, Transport, Public Works and Auxiliary services such as garbage collection. The four functions are the backbone of any county government, especially the city county.

The functions were taken over by the Nairobi Metropolitan Services – an entity established by the President and domiciled in his office.

When we arrive at Mbagathi, a team of county officials headed by Health CEC Hitan Majevdia and the hospital’s board of management is ready to receive the county chief.

The hangers-on have arrived with a group of youths already singing songs praising the governor as women dance in circle – clearly obvious of the Covid 19 pandemic regulations.

Moments later, Sonko arrives in style – five black posh cars, one of them a Lexus; the other a Mercedes Benz mounted with a siren in front.

About 15 heavily built men, some of them with firearms protruding from their T-shirts, jump out of the cars and surround the one carrying the man of the moment.

He is ushered in and led to the site of the newly refurbished outpatient centre. He tours the facility before cutting the ribbon to signal the official launch of the facility.

In his address, Sonko orders Majevdia to facilitate the immediate payment of the outstanding Sh6 million to the facility's contractor.

“We got some Sh1.2 billion (from the Exchequer). I know we will pay salary and still be left with some money. I am ordering as the governor that you pay this contractor within two days,” he directs.

As he leaves, the youths prevailed upon him to address them – and obviously give them handouts. He does that and leaves the hospital.

We are told to wait for a call to know where the governor will be available for the interview. And so, we wait.

Minutes after 1pm, we receive a call asking us to meet on Argwings Kodhek Road in Hurlingham where the governor’s new private office is located.

We are led to the Greenpath Residence, but we are not allowed in as the governor has not arrived. Here, we wait for two hours.

We are told to leave and probably schedule the meeting as the governor’s whereabouts is unknown.

At about 4.30pm, another call comes in, telling us to do all we can to reach Garden Estate Primary School in Roysambu where the governor is inspecting projects.

Moments later, we are told to go to Roysambu ward administrator’s office. We google maps to locate the place.

On arrival, we find the place is full. 

The governor’s high end cars are parked outside the office with the officers providing round the clock security.

We are led to a waiting room where we sit for about 10 minutes before we are ushered in for the interview.

Inside the room — a modest office without a carpet and with only two tables and four chairs — we find the governor with Roysambu MCA Peter Warutere.

The county chief is busy on his phone when we arrive. Another phone is on the table.

Two minutes into the interview, one of the phones rings. But he does not answer – probably not to disrupt the interview. For the 56 minutes we spend with Sonko, his phone rings 15 times. He does not answer even once.

Sonko tells us that his daily routine and operations have not changed despite the NMS taking over the key county functions.

“I am still the Governor of Nairobi. All these functions that are transferred are still under me. That is why you saw me launching projects in Mbagathi and now I am here,” he says.

Sonko has been described by many as a figurehead, ceremonious and a powerless governor after he signed off the four functions to the national government.

The four functions he transferred take up to Sh20 billion of the city county’s Sh35 billion annual budget.

Sonko's top appointees – executives and chief officers – have been rendered ‘jobless’ with other top county officials, including directors, being takeover by NMS, which is headed by military man Mohamed Badi.

The governor maintains he still performs his official duties, including chairing the CEC committee meetings, getting briefs from county officers, launching projects and inspecting those he had initiated.

“I am going on with my work as governor. Subcounty administration is under NMS but I am here, in Roysambu, in this office with area MCA, inspecting projects. I will continue doing that, nobody will stop me from doing that,” he says.

However, he does not disclose how frequent he convenes his cabinet and how cabinet policies are implemented, especially for the ones touching on the transferred functions.

According to his handlers, the governor has three offices, in Mua Hills (his ancestral home in Machakos county), Upper Hill and the new one on Argwings Kodhek Road.

He prefers holding meetings at the Upper Hill office but the recent raid by EACC detectives probing how he acquired the property coupled with Badi's takeover of former mayor's residence in Lavington, have pushed him to shift some of his operations to the new office — at Greenpath Residence.

“He holds cabinet meetings at least once a month. But he holds many meetings with county officers. He is briefed every morning. If he has specific issues, he calls the concerned officers and they meet,” personal assistant Ben Mulwa said.

The governor has also embarked on distributing relief items to those hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I support what they (NMS) do. In fact, most of the projects like recarpeting Kenyatta Avenue, I am the person who started it. We advised and awarded the tender,” he says.

According to an executive who did not want to be named and whose docket has been transferred to NMS, their work has been scaled down though they meet the governor occasionally, especially when launching or inspecting projects.

“I go to the office but there is nothing much there. NMS only calls when they are stuck. But for the governor, we meet often. Some of our officers are with NMS and they brief us and we relay the same to the governor,” the CEC said.

As we conclude the interview at about 5.30pm, we are certainly not the last people Sonko meets on this day.

As we walk out of the interview room, we see five people sitting on the visitors’ bench at the entrance of the room where the governor is.

Outside, the governor’s vehicles are on standby, all facing the gate where a his supporters are milling – hoping for handouts.