Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko was involved in a heated confrontation with his son-in-law on Saturday, after receiving a distress call from one of his daughters.
According to a video posted on his social media, Sonko reacted swiftly after his daughter called her mother, claiming that her husband had slapped her on the face.
Sonko's daughter had reportedly asked her husband what they would have for breakfast when all hell broke loose, and he allegedly reacted by attacking her.
"Today, we received a distress call from our daughter that shook us to the core, her voice trembling, her spirit broken. As a parent, nothing prepares you for the moment your child reaches out in fear, in pain, or in desperation. I acted immediately, because no mother or father can sit still when their child is hurting," Sonko said in an accompanying statement.
"And it made me ask myself, if my own daughter can face harassment in her own home, what about the countless young women and men in Kenya who suffer silently, with no one to defend them?"
What followed was Sonko and his team heading to his daughter's home and confronting him in a heated argument in which the son-in-law remained mum when asked his reasons for hitting the politician's daughter.
During the argument, Sonko revealed that he was bankrolling the entire family, paying their rent, paying school fees for their children, buying groceries, and even buying the couple a Range Rover.
As such, he highlighted that if his daughter could be assaulted in her own home, then more women from all walks of life were in danger of suffering domestic violence, despite their stature in the community.
He called for women in similar abusive relationships to open up and seek help, as some hospitals in the city, even the low-income ones, offered services for women experiencing Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.
Over the course of the confrontation, Sonko restrained his team from physically hurting his son-in-law, stating that violence would not solve anything.
At the end, he took his daughter and left with her, leaving the son-in-law with a stern warning to never touch his daughter again. Despite this, he said that he was open to having a sober conversation with his son-in-law in the future over their contentious marriage.
The former governor ended his rant with nuggets of wisdom for young couples, urging them to resolve marital disagreements in a civilised manner without violence, although marriage might not be easy.
