Mike Sonko's Team Nairobi Reported to be Facing Financial Crisis

Details have emerged indicating that the Jubilee "Team Nairobi" led by Senator Mike Sonko is in a financial crisis after wealthy tycoons from the Mount Kenya Region withheld the cash they had pledged.

Sources privy to the details revealed to a local daily that the wealthy and influential businessmen had pledged to bankroll the team's campaigns but changed their minds on realising that their businesses would suffer under Sonko.

The businessmen reportedly told the President that "they would fund the campaigns but now they have realised their businesses will be affected under Sonko. They are actually happy with Governor Evans Kidero.”

Aside from the financial woes, reports and recent occurrences suggest that Team Nairobi is deeply divided with aspirants opting to campaign alone, marking the end of the flamboyant joint campaigns that the team initially had in the city.

With only 34 days left to the elections, the team will have to put their house in order and campaign to rival National Super Alliance (NASA) candidates who are giving them a tight competition.

Things seem to be falling apart for the team that is made up of aspirants Johnson Sakaja (Senate), Rachel Shebesh (Woman Representative), Millicent Omanga (on Jubilee nomination list) and a host of Member of County Assembly (MCA) aspirants who had taken the city by storm.

Senatorial aspirant Sakaja has been a lone ranger, taking his campaigns to Westlands on Friday and to Kawangware on Saturday.

Shebesh, on the other hand, took her campaigns to Nairobi's Eastlands area in the past week.

Sonko’s running mate Polycarp Igathe on his part has been hosting women groups, business community and youth groups at five-star hotels, hoping to get their support.

Last week, media reports indicated that Sonko was broke and had scaled down his campaigns.

Reports also claimed that the senator's presidential suite at a five-star hotel from where he had been operating since winning the Jubilee nominations had been locked for a week.

Sonko dismissed the claims, maintaining that he had scaled down his campaigns as a tactical move and not due to financial challenges.