Not even a mediation process spearheaded by President Uhuru Kenyatta appears able to bring peace between these two.
Kibicho and Sonko have consistently battled in the past three years with the politician accusing the high-ranking civil servant of one thing or the other.
Here are some of the accusations;
1. Post-election violence – In January 2021, Mike Sonko took to the podium at a political rally and in the presence of Deputy President William Ruto among others, said he and Kibicho had joined hands to plan some of the chaos witnessed during the 2017 general elections. Sonko would further detail he and Kibicho purchased second-hand vehicles and with the help of hired goons donning Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) branded jerseys, proceeded to burn the cars and later level the blame towards the Raila Odinga led party. Kibicho has pleaded innocence and vowed to sue Sonko.
2. ICC claims – In 2020, Sonko sensationally threatened to sue Kibicho at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Via a lengthy post on social media, Sonko claimed to have incriminating evidence linking Kibicho, plus Nairobi Regional Commander Wilson Njega and Nairobi Regional Police Commander Philip Ndolo of evicting residents from their houses in spite of a court order barring the exercise. The ex-governor is yet to make good his threat while Kibicho has so far remained mum.
3. Audio recording – In 2019, Sonko shared an audio recording of what he said was the voice of Kibicho portraying him in bad light. On his social media pages, Sonko claimed the PS was plotting to make life difficult for him in office. The PS elected to remain mum at the time.
4. Mainstream media – Still in 2019, Sonko, without backing up his claims, claimed Kibicho was using the mainstream media to tarnish his image. The politician went on to post several newspaper articles detailing allegations of highhandedness and corruption at City Hall as ‘proof’. He vowed to cut off advertisements from his county to the media as a result and also promised to sue the media and certain journalists. He failed to live to that promise.
5. EACC probe/bloggers – Sonko again came out to claim that Kibicho was behind his consistent summons to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption (EACC) in 2019. EACC denied this claim, and accused Sonko of blackmail. Not deterred, Sonko referred to Kibicho as part of a ‘deep state’ and claimed online bloggers had been hired to harass him online.
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