Nairobi Governor, Mike Sonko, has previously revealed that he fears for his life due to numerous death threats, he says, he has received. The governor, therefore, crafted measures to ensure that he is well protected from any impending danger.
Sonko's paranoia is similar to the late powerful Cabinet Ministers, Nicholas Biwott and Professor George Saitoti who both also devised mechanisms to ensure their safety.
The governor fears that some people want him dead due to the numerous changes he has effected in Nairobi that has angered powerful cartels. Sonko put an end to people who built without permits and those who profited from rogue garbage disposal plots. He also fought against land grabbers. Sonko also gave out his phone numbers to residents who would call him and report any incidents.
"Some people are after my downfall and have even planted things at my City Hall office. I am very sharp and I will not fall into the trap. I am just waiting for my death, you will never fix (kill) me. I was jailed and nothing astounds me," Sonko revealed in a past interview as he explained why he had recently relocated his office to Upper Hill in Nairobi.
In the early days of his tenure in 2017, Sonko had operated form Lilian Towers in Nairobi, where he paid rent amounting to Ksh 1.8 million in four months. In May 2018, he shifted his office to his Mua residence in Machakos county.
He has at a number of times sacked and reshuffled his cabinet over allegations that they were working with his enemies.
At one time, he added his own private guards to the governments four armed police bodyguards raising the number of his detail to around 26. He went on to change his routine, who he hangs out with and who he meets.
In August, while in Nakuru, he ordered a hotel staffer to taste his food before he ate it due to fears of being poisoned. He even at one point snubbed his entourage at an airport and got onto the bus with passengers.
Former Vice President, George Saitoti, before dying in a controversial helicopter crash in 2012 also lived in fear. He narrowed down his circle of friends and only allowed a few people to visit him after he was poisoned to near death back in February 1990.
He stuck with his security detail for long and never fancied them being changed or replaced. He was wary of where he ate and only preferred Jimi Wanjigi's private restaurant at Kwacha House in Westlands, Nairobi.
"From then on, four security officers would check his food throughout the cooking process and when serving. He would not eat anything that had not been cleared by his guards," his former security chief, Senior Superintendent Johnstone Koech narrated.
He even started flying with cats and dogs that would also taste his meal.
According to The Nairobian the late Energy Minister Nicholas Biwot was known to arrive in different cars, hire entire hotel floors but would not sleep there. He would also pick food at random. His aide would carry bottled water for him and on his way home, his motorcade would drive three times around Museum Hill roundabout in Nairobi.
Biwott also led a private life as he was never on any social media sites. He passed away in July 2017.
