Mike Sonko is the role model that Kenyan youth have been waiting for

By KWAMCHETSI MAKOKHA, kwamchetsi@formandcontent.co.ke
Posted Friday, October 1 2010 at 20:41

In Summary

* "Green-eyed people look at this bounty and fly into paroxysms of jealousy, freezing his account because someone has made a little deposit of Sh97 million in it"

At the tender age of 35 years, the new Makadara MP is the closest thing Kenyan children have had to a homegrown role model.

With the television often showing so many adults behaving badly, there is a shortage of people to emulate, and Mr Gidion Mbuvi Kioko is the answer to all that.

A magical shape-shifter who morphs into identities as numerous as the occasion demands, he can be the mythical and enigmatic Mike Sonko who can buy you and sell you at a loss.

Or he can be the neighbourhood don whose bodyguards clear the way of all human rubbish before he passes; or the loyal son Gidion who chooses to bury his mother instead of attending court.

He is Superman and Robin Hood rolled into one.
Like all good role models, he has a high sense of self-awareness. He knows who he is — even if other people do not.

In order to look the part, Mike Sonko is stylish in his sartorial choices and deliberately accessorises to demonstrate the great premium he places on his body — it is, after all, the temple of God.

Shielding his face with a hat to protect it from gamma rays and weighed down by carats of bling, he is a matchless statement of self-worth.

In this manner, perhaps more than in any other way, he sets and meets a high leadership threshold. First impressions always last.

As the owner of five matatus, a double-decker bus and an entertainment joint, Mike Sonko has shown Kenyan youth that they can make it through life without sweating the small stuff like mathematics, civics and geography.

Leadership capacity can be demonstrated even before school — by learning so much English that you can feel confident to dispense of its use and live in total freedom without ever needing to speak a foreign tongue.

Many people would go through life apologising for the amount of English they cannot speak, but Mike Sonko is self-assured and therefore inspires confidence among the youth.

After all, he passed the English literacy test, and his Kiswahili is above average, when the Interim Independent Electoral Commission required it.

Unencumbered by the slave mentality of taking a lowly job and waiting for a salary like a medicine dosage, he has let the rewards of his investments and sweat provide an endless fountain of wealth he can drink from.

Green-eyed people look at this bounty and fly into paroxysms of jealousy, freezing his account because someone has made a little deposit of Sh97 million in it all the way from the United Kingdom.

Frankly, Sh97 million is barely enough to buy the beach plot Mike Sonko would be selling at a loss. If old people are selling 23 acres on Takwa Beach in Lamu for 300 million, why should he sell his in the same style?

The six-acre beach plots in Funzi Island on sale for Sh2.28 million, or the beach hotel being sold as a going concern in Diani, Mombasa, for Sh59 million are not in Mike Sonko’s league. He sells the big stuff.

Enveloped by a strong scent of financial sanctity, he has even volunteered to serve as Member of Parliament without drawing a salary.

There is a lesson in philanthropy there. With just five matatus, a double-decker bus and an entertainment joint, you can pass up Sh1.2 million of taxpayer money every month. In fact, you can do better and emulate Mike Sonko.

You can sink it back into your constituency to alleviate poverty.
Kenyan youth can learn not to start interrogating blessings when they receive them. If you find Sh100 million in your bank account, you do not start fasting to ask God where it came from; you rejoice and give thanks.

Yet, Mike Sonko is not just about money. He interacts very well with people and knows how to communicate with them.

The way he has lived his life so far, achieving so much in less than 20 years of adulthood, should inspire confidence in young people that they, too, can make it to the apex of society.

As someone who understands why people sometimes fall into crime, Mike Sonko has already offered practical leadership by dissuading youth from harmful and violent activities.

So far, he has urged criminals to surrender firearms to him, so that he, in turn, can surrender them to the government. Obviously, he knows a thing or two about the government and its trust issues, and can aptly play the role of mediator in society.

The next thing you know, all of Eastlands in Nairobi will have disarmed.At that time, the city will know it is time to elect Mike Sonko as the first Senator of Nairobi in 2012. He will write the job description while in office.

kwamchetsi@formandcontent.co.ke