New MP Mbuvi fires imaginations

FILE | NATION New Makadara MP Gidion Kioko Mbuvi has been making headlines.

By NATION REPORTER, newsdesk@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Wednesday, September 29 2010 at 22:10
In Summary

‘Sonko’ hogging the limelight

New Makadara MP Gidion Kioko Mbuvi has been making headlines again after his armed bodyguards roughed up Capital FM’s DJ Leo, and his passengers — including an eight-year old girl, accusing them of “blocking the road”.
This story elicited a lot of comments from nation.co.ke readers, the majority of who castigated Sonko’s behaviour.
However, despite all the castigation, a cross-section of the blogosphere called for Kenyans to forgive the Member of Parliament and give him a chance to redeem his otherwise tainted image.

The new MP for Makadara is fast becoming an urban legend with Parliament discussing the issue of integrity.

On Wednesday, stories were circulating of people with some similarity to Mr Gidion Kioko Mbuvi, also known as Mike Sonko, some linked to crime.

The 35-year-old MP, who often sports oversized casual shirts and expensive jewellery, has fired the imagination with his display of great but largely unexplained wealth.

The MP reportedly owns five matatus, a double decker bus and an entertainment joint.

Police sources told the Daily Nation that in August 2009, a senior CID officer was demoted after leaking a top secret crime report to a Buru Buru trader.

The leak so infuriated the commissioner of police at the time that he ordered a senior detective to investigate.

The businessman was arrested, questioned at Vigilance House and locked up.

“I personally arrested a young man who owned matatus on the Buru Buru route after he was found with secret police documents,” an officer involved in the probe told the Nation.

In 2009, an officer at Buru Buru and a civilian were arrested and charged with kidnapping a director of C & P Shoe Industries on Bunyala Road.

The officer and civilian, who were driving a car belonging to a Buru Buru tycoon, allegedly accosted the businessman, bundled him into the vehicle and told him he was under arrest for murder. They drove to Kiambu, where it was alleged, they demanded Sh3 million ransom for his release.

However, the Kiambu Flying Squad arrested the two.

Police sources said a senior Vigilance House officer at the time intervened and had the case transferred to Nairobi CID.

About the same time, Mr Mbuvi applied and obtained anticipatory bail from the Makadara Law Courts, fearing arrest.

In 2000, a Gidion Kioko Mbuvi was remanded at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison for alleged forgery. The same year, a fraud case was opened against a person of the same name.

Earlier, a Mr Mike Munga who had been arrested and held at Shimo La Tewa prison escaped. He later successfully appealed against the conviction and the State appears not to have pressed prison break charges.

In Parliament, Prime Minister Raila Odinga clashed with Narc Kenya chairperson Martha Karua in a heated debate on the integrity of some MPs.

Ms Karua had sought clarifications from Mr Odinga on the integrity of some ministers she claimed should be sacked because they had cases in court or were linked to corruption scandals.