A special security team was deployed at the Kiambu law courts on Tuesday, February 2, as former Nairobi Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko arrived in court.
In a video seen by Kenyans.co.ke, special security officers were seen at the entrance of the Kiambu Law courts before the governor proceeded in for the arraignment.
Unlike the normal police officers deployed during such proceedings, the new team had balaclavas hiding their faces and carried what appeared to be advanced firearms.
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The media was also barred from covering the proceedings.
Together with others, Sonko is being charged with at least 12 counts including; robbery with violence, assault, destruction of property and others.
Robbery with violence - which the law defines as an offender who is armed with any dangerous weapon or is in the company of one or more persons and attempts to wound, beat, strike or use any other personal violence to any person - attracts a death penalty.
In an application filed by Senior Counsel John Khaminwa, Sonko stated that he had been threatened and intimidated by police officers and feared he would be arrested if he obeyed the summons.
The former governor spent Monday night being quizzed by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) offices in Kiambu.
Sonko had been summoned by the investigative body after he claimed that he and other senior government officials burnt vehicles during the 2017 general elections in order to paint the ODM party in bad light.
Interior PS Karanja Kibicho also presented himself at the DCI headquarters to record a statement over Sonko's claims.
