Senator Mike Sonko sues Governor Evans Kidero over drug peddling remarks

Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko addressing the press in this file photo.

KENYA: Nairobi Senator Mike Mbuvi Sonko has lived up to his threat and filed a defamation suit against Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero.

Last month, Sonko through a demand notice issued by his lawyer Danson Mungatana, gave Kidero a week to withdraw remarks and apologise for linking him to drug dealing.

However, Kidero did not apologise for the remarks that he allegedly made while addressing a crowd in Mathare, prompting Sonko to file a defamation suit a month later.

In the suit, Sonko wants the matter certified urgent. He further wants Kidero and the Star Newspaper stopped from making any reference to him either directly or indirectly.

He accused the Nairobi Governor of engaging in a smear campaign against him by making scandalous allegations in public.

"The message was published on a newspaper with wide coverage more so in Nairobi County where I represent at the Senate level. It is meant to demean me before my county members and the public and was maliciously done to jeopardize my rescue team and charitable organization as it is scandalous to accuse a person charged with provision of charitable services of committing serious acts of crime," he stated in an affidavit.

He stated that anyone who heard Kidero's speech in Mathare could easily link it to the report in the newspaper that made allegations of his drug peddling.

The allegations, he further said, caused him to incur huge losses after some contracts were cancelled.

Unless stopped by the court, he said, the Nairobi Governor and the local daily will continue making allegations that will disparage his reputation.