This Sonko issue cannot fade away before yours truly shares her take on the issue. I rose on Monday morning to find my timeline filled with Mike Sonko stories. Tuning in to Capital FM, I found a very angry Eve D’Souza narrating the story. As you all know by now, Sonko’s bodyguards had allegedly brandished guns and roughed up Capital FM’s DJ Leo and his passengers, blaming them for “blocking the road”. This took place on Saturday night. As the station presenter was breathing fire, the Makadara MP elect calls in to give his side of the story claiming that DJ Leo was drunk.
At this point I can’t help but wonder - whether the occupants of DJ Leo’s car were drunk or not - wasn’t it totally inappropriate to draw out such weapons and descend on the poor entertainer like that? As for the MP elect, what kind of leadership was he portraying by just standing by and watch as his henchmen massacred Leo? But then again, most Kenyan politicians are just that. Politicians. It takes quite noble actions and empathy towards the masses to elevate a politician to a leader.
Then I think that I’m reasoning rather unfairly. This novice in politics should be given a chance to redeem his now tainted image (I understand there are claims that he has also done time). With cries from different quarters demanding that he publicly declares his wealth and recent tax returns, I reckon his situation should be put aside and let the citizens focus on all the grand corruption scandals that have marred the country over the years.
The so called veteran politicians and senior government officials have conducted broad daylight robbery against Kenyans for years and nothing has ever been done about it. And do you remember the MP who was caught on camera throwing stones? Isn’t he still in parliament? The worst part about all these is that the electorate will keep voting for these characters over and over and over (infinity) again. I’m sorry to say this, but we get the leaders that we deserve. Our ‘leaders’ are a reflection of the society.
Understandably, the Capital FM community tore up Sonko completely the whole day (Monday), starting with Eve and her colleague on Capital In The Morning. They handed over the baton to Cess and Maqbul in the afternoon who did a thorough job in assassinating any piece of dignity that remained of the flamboyant MP. The Mike Sonko humiliation relay was completed by the duo of Joey and Solo, with Joey joining Cess in disowning the first time legislator as a ‘kao’. The only good thing that came out of all this was when Martha Karua apologized on the radio station on behalf of Sonko. She really proved herself to be a diplomat, a lady of integrity and portrayed true leadership.
It’s interesting to note that the slogan for the latest promotion by one of the local telecommunications companies borrows some words from the MP elect’s name. This reminds me of a local hip hop group that did track comparing supersonic speed to Pamela Jelimo. It’s funny that I now can’t seem to remember the last race she won.
Over the weekend I watched two live interviews of the youthful legislator on different local television channels. Well, I have to say that the man is talking big considering that he is barely a fortnight old in parliament. For instance, he has a Mike Sonko foundation that aims to have accumulated at least 800 million Kshs from his friends abroad. He also plans run for Senator of Nairobi county come 2012. I’ve got four words for him: All the best dude.
Watching these interviews on TV and reading about the above incident, I conclude that all young Mike needs is a package of three things. For a start the guy urgently needs a public relations consultant. The man simply has a propensity of speaking too much, and all the wrong things for that matter. He needs an expert to guide him on what to filter when speaking in public. Two, the guy needs an English tutor. If you’ve been watching him on telly, listening to him on radio or reading his posts on his facebook page, you know what I’m talking about. Finally, hiring a stylist would be in order.
