Inside Sonko-Mutua wars – Weekly Citizen

Uhuru Kenyatta’s succession politics is to blame in the bitter fallout between governors Mike Sonko of Nairobi and his Machakos counterpart Alfred Mutua with the name of Kalonzo Musyoka being dragged into the fiasco.
The verbal war came to the public limelight Tuesday when Mutua visited Nairobi and vowed to repair and maintain the statues of Tom Mboya and Dedan Kimathi, saying they have been neglected.
Mutua’s visit brought the verbal political war to full public view as Kalembe Ndile who is now Sonko’s ally came fighting in defence of Sonko.

Governor Sonko

On Wednesday, Ndile hosted a media conference in his Machakos Beach hotel in Machakos and attacked Mutua for abandoning his county and going to tour projects in Nairobi. Kalembe accused Mutua of worshipping statues instead of serving the “alive statues suffering in his county”.
After the conference, Mutua who appeared to have been briefed immediately dispatched public health officers to the hotel who conducted an impromptu inspection. The inspection team charged that Kalembe constructed the hotel without approval from the county department of planning.
They also charged that Kalembe had interfered with the area ecosystem by converting a river into a manmade lake thereby blocking the flow of water from the river.
As a result five workers were arrested and locked up at Machakos Police Station.
Kalembe who is now working for Sonko with reports that he is the caretaker of Sonko’s hotel in Mtwapa, Kilifi, called Sonko and informed him what had happened.
Sonko bitter with Mutua for fighting him in Nairobi forced mobilised anti-governor leaders who stormed Machakos town on Thursday in solidarity with the detained workers.
The team that accompanied Sonko who bailed out Kalembe’s staff included MPs Partick Makau who has declared to contest Machakos gubernatorial seat, MP Daniel Maanzo of Makueni, Simon Mbugua (Eala), Reuben Ndolo and Stanley Livondo.
It should be noted that Kalembe had previously worked closely with Mutua whom he backed during the 2013 and 2017 general elections in the then wars between the governor and Kalonzo. It is said that the money he used to built the hotel came from Mutua.

Talk is rife that Sonko has fallen out with Kikuyus in Nairobi and has renewed fight with Mutua is testing waters in Machakos county where his rural home is based.
This is the base of the bitterness Mutua has with Kalembe for abandoning him with talk that the Machakos governor funded Kalembe’s parliamentary campaigns on a Jubilee ticket for Mavoko constituency in 2017 general election.
Those following Machakos politics say that Mutua is frustrated that nearly all leaders have abandoned him. Last week Mutua blocked his chief of staff Mwengi Mutuse from accessing his office.
Mwengi had refused to facilitate Mutua’s wife Lillian Nganga with Sh1.8 million for a Dubai trip.
Both Mutuse and Mutua’s second wife do not see eye to eye and it is alleged that it was Mutuse who leaked information to Sonko camp that Lillian was snatched by Mutua from Starehe MP Charles Njagua. Sonko on his side instructed Mbugua to reveal to public how Mutua snatched Lillian from the M