Shimo La Tewa Prison Goes After Sonko

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko's woes seemed to have escalated after Shimo la Tewa Maximum Security Prison went after him.

According to a report by Daily Nation on Sunday, November 24, the prison submitted that the governor should complete his remaining sentence in the correctional facility.

The publication disclosed that in response to the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC). Shimo la Tewa prison claimed that Sonko alias Mbuvi Gideon Kioko should serve the pending sentence as well as be charged for the offence of escaping from prison.

According to prison records forwarded to the EACC, Sonko was convicted on March 12, 1998, for failing to attend court in CF 675/97 and  CF 1727/96. He was sentenced to pay Ksh200,000 and Ksh 500, 000 fine respectively or serve six months for each sentence in prison in default.

Being unable to raise the fine, he was committed to Shimo la Tewa to serve his custodial sentence.

He was then admitted to Shimo la Tewa under prison number P/No. SHO/477/1998 and was scheduled to be released on March 11, 1999.

However, he appeared to have mysteriously left the facility on April 16, 1998, a month after his incarceration.

On November 15, 2000, the officer in charge of Industrial Area Remand Prison sent a signal to Shimo la Tewa that Sonko had been remanded awaiting other criminal offences.

This saw him labelled as a dangerous criminal and was therefore transferred to Kamiti Maximum Prison under number KAM/1255/001

Based on information received from the Director of Public Prosecutions concerning Sonko’s previous criminal records EACC launched investigations after registering a complaint on September 19, 2019.

The commission further claimed that it had verified the information from the DPP with various police stations and prison authorities.

The anti-graft agency also disclosed that in court documents filed as a replying affidavit in Miscellaneous Cause No. 326 of 2019, the county boss also failed to disclose his past criminal records in the self-declaration form.

“That the first interested party, Hon Mike Mbuvi Sonko failed to disclose this information in the self-declaration form wherein one of the moral questions was: “Have you ever been convicted of any offence and sentenced to serve imprisonment for a period of at least six months?” EACC alleged.

Sonko is recorded to have denied having being convicted which according to the court affidavit was not true.

This meant that Sonko had contravened Sections 13, 29 and 30 of the Leadership Act, 2012 by failing to honestly present information to the public, falsifying records and giving false and misleading information to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission(IEBC).

 

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