Nairobi Governor-elect Mike Sonko seems to have had the last
laugh in his feud with Nairobi Water managing director Eng Philip Gichuki that
once left him red-faced.
The Nairobi City Water Sewerage Company (NCWSC) board of
directors on Friday announced that it would not renew the contract of Mr
Gichuki, sparking a strike by workers at the firm.
The board has appointed Nahashon Muguna, the Nairobi Water
Technical Director, to take over as MD in an acting capacity.
Others whose contracts have not been renewed include
directors Stephen Mbugua (Commercial), Johnson Randu (Finance) Ms. Rosemary
Kijana (Human Resource and Administration Services).
But what is unknown to many is that Sonko had unfinished
business with Mr Gichuki.
It is, however, imperative to note from the onset that there
is no evidence that the incoming governor had a hand in the development at the
firm.
Though incorporated in December 2003 under the Companies
Act, NCWSC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nairobi City County.
The Sonko-Gichuki feud started in May 2015 when then Senator
stormed the MD’s office on Kampala Road in Industrial Area accompanied by
retinue of bodyguards and cheerleaders.
He had gone to protest after Eastlands residents complained
of water contaminated with sewage.
“The senator was questioning the MD why he was not picking
his calls despite his repeated attempts to talk to him on phone,” a source at
the water company who witnessed the mid-morning showdown told Nairobi News back
then.
The problem begun when one of Sonko’s bodyguards rudely
stopped an employee from accessing the MD’s office which is located on the
second floor.
What Sonko and his team did not know was that the MD is a
darling of the employees, who refer to him as baba (father).
The shocked and enraged employee quickly alerted his
colleagues about the strangers in the compound.
Word spread quickly and soon hundreds of employees were
converging, shouting and asking Sonko’s drivers to leave the compound.
Meanwhile, some employees deflated the vehicles as others
blocked the entry and exit points with the water tankers.
“Some employees were threatening to spray the vehicles with
human waste. It was quite a spectacle,” recalled an employee.
As anger was building up, the area police boss was alerted
and came in with a few officers who had a hard time convincing the employees to
let them in.
“He (police boss) said ‘I’m on your side’ and that’s when he
was let in,” the employee said.
The officer then made his way into the MD’s office and
convinced him to go out and calm his employees down.
The cool and collected MD is shown on a video asking the
employees not to pay “evil for evil”.
Moments later, Sonko walks out of the building and is
briefly roughed up by the enraged employees who forced him to apologize to Mr
Gichuki “na umuite baba (and address him as father)”. He was sweating
profusely.
A cheeky but cornered Sonko later changed story and said he
had gone to pay the MD a courtesy call and alert him about ongoing grabbing of
land belonging to Nairobi Water.
He cited a case in Loresho, Nairobi which he had filed in
court. In defence, the Water company management said there had been a problem
where people had been allowed to put up houses on way leaves something that
made it easier for water to get contaminated besides making it impossible for
its engineers to address emerging issues.
The employees later let Sonko and team leave.
Now, Sonko is set to be sworn in on Monday and Mr Gichukia
is out of the firm.
