Detained Nairobi governor gets medical treatment
Nairobi governor Mike Sonko is receiving medical attention at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH). As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, Sonko has been charged with 10 counts related to money laundering, receiving bribes and conflict of interest in a multi-million dollar scandal. Sonko pleaded not guilty to all the charges when he was arraigned before Magistrate Douglas Ogoti on Monday. The Nation reports that his defence team, led by Cecil Miller, has told magistrate Douglas Ogoti that the embattled governor was sick and required medical attention after being ‘roughed up’ by police who arrested him on Friday. Ogoti ordered that while the injuries are disputed, ‘his admission to hospital will be certified by the prisons medical centre in the presence of his physician’. Sonko is the latest in a string of top officials – including Finance Minister Henry Rotch – to be charged with corruption as Kenya battles to clamp down on rampant graft. The politician and other officials are accused by public prosecutor Noordin Haji of having benefited from irregular procurement and payments of $3.5m. Haji said he had sufficient evidence to prosecute Sonko and other county officials for 'unlawful acquisition of public property, money laundering and other economic crimes'.