Sonko Comes Clean About Corruption Allegations Facing Him

Nairobi governor Mike Sonko. He has been accused of allegedly giving out irregular garbage collection tenders. Photo/Courtesy

Nairobi Governor, Mike Sonko, has come out to clear the air on corruption allegations laid against him.

The accusations, which have so far gone viral on social media under the Twitter Hashtag emerged on Wednesday after the governor appeared at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), for questioning over tenders awarded to private companies to collect garbage in the city.

Inside one of the maternity wards in Pumwani Hospital. Sonko has been hailed and criticized in equal measures. Photo/Courtesy

In his defence, Sonko stated that he never penned his signature on the contracts adding that most of the works were done by his cabinet.

Sonko noted that some of the awards were being done behind his back and that he had blocked some of the payments.

“I learned of the select committee’s concerns and blacklisted the companies. I also stopped any payments due to them as well. As a result of all these, I was forced to stop the Environment chief officer who is the accounting officer of the sector, together with the then Environment executive and the former County Secretary from working in my government,” stated Sonko.

Sonko had, on Tuesday, spent over eight hours at the EACC offices recording a statement regarding questionable multimillion garbage collection and disposal tenders awarded to 13 firms by City Hall.

The anti-graft body is investigating claims of corruption in the award of tenders for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 financial years. The 2017-18 tender is said to be for Ksh357 million.

The allegations were already trending with some Twitter users calling for the governor’s removal, while others rubbished the claims and offered their support for the vocal city boss.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *