Back to Africa Check

Nairobi governor Sonko charged with corruption – but resignation letter fake

In early December 2019 Mike Sonko, the governor of Nairobi, was dramatically arrested on suspicion of corruption.

Nairobi is both Kenya’s capital city and one of its 47 counties.

A few days later, an official-looking document posted on Facebook seemed to announce Sonko’s resignation as governor. It’s a letter addressed to the Nairobi county Speaker, apparently written by Sonko.



‘I have decided to step aside’


“As you are all aware, the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has pressed several charges against me and other officials from the Nairobi City County relating to alleged financial crimes,” it reads.

“To safeguard the integrity of the investigations and after deep soul searching and consultations, I have decided to step aside from office, as I has earlier promised when charged.”

It then says Sonko has nominated Simon Mbugua as his deputy governor.

On 9 December, the day the letter was posted, Sonko and other county officials were charged in a KSh357 million corruption case. But did he write the letter?

No.

On the same day, Sonko posted the letter on his verified Twitter account, with “FAKE” stamped across it. – Grace Gichuhi 

Republish our content for free

Please complete this form to receive the HTML sharing code.

For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false

A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?

Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.

Publishers guide

Africa Check teams up with Facebook

Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.

The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.

You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.

Add new comment

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
limit: 600 characters

Want to keep reading our fact-checks?

We will never charge you for verified, reliable information. Help us keep it that way by supporting our work.

Become a newsletter subscriber

Support independent fact-checking in Africa.