Former Nairobi Governor, Mike Mbuvi Sonko, now says President Uhuru Kenyatta introduced him into the culture of recording calls, in what he terms as a move aimed at getting hold of cartels.
Appearing on KTN News on Sunday, April 24, the former City Hall boss disclosed that it was the Head of State who gave him the first recording device to help him investigate corruption in the county.
The governor, famed for his exposes on social media, revealed that Uhuru gave him the devices after he went to State House to report an incident where county officials gave him millions of shillings.
"During my first term in office, I was given Ksh18,000,000 in cash. When I asked what was the money for, I was told that it was mine, collected from the cash office. That evening, I went to State House with the money and I reported the matter to Uhuru and we counted it together.
"Uhuru introduced me to an engineer at State House and directed me to investigate the loopholes in revenue collection. It is he who gave me my first recording device. On the second day, they also brought money and we captured it on video," he disclosed.
Further, he attributed the success in revenue collection during his first term to the recordings.
"I took that recording to the President and he really intervened because we stopped loss of cash collected by the county. Based on that information, I personally used that evidence to storm the office where people were caught with millions of shillings.
"The first achievement of Uhuru and I was to digitise cash collection. I meant well. We started collecting over Ksh150,000,000 per day," he stated.
He defended his actions to record people without their knowledge stating it has helped expose corruption in different government agencies.
"I am not a recording artist. That issue of recording people started during my first term in office and I really meant well. I used to expose cartels and thieves.
"That is how we started and the President was aware we were using it for catching cartels. If investigative agencies want to win cases, they must have recordings," he stated.
The former Nairobi county boss also disclosed that he provided evidence to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) in a case against a Judge, adding that the matter had been concluded.
He stated that the recordings will vindicate his actions.
