{"id":685652,"date":"2019-08-19T15:52:38","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T15:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"
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CNN\u2019s efforts to reach Sonko and his staff for comment were unsuccessful. When asked about the governor\u2019s comments, Okoth\u2019s brother, Imran Okoth, told CNN: \u201cNo comment. It\u2019s a personal matter.\u201d The alleged mother of Okoth\u2019s child declined to"},"modified":"2019-08-19T15:52:38","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T15:52:38","slug":"mps-affair-revealed-by-friend-at-his-funeral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/08\/19\/mps-affair-revealed-by-friend-at-his-funeral\/","title":{"rendered":"MP’s affair revealed by friend at his funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"

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CNN\u2019s efforts to reach Sonko and his staff for comment were unsuccessful. When asked about the governor\u2019s comments, Okoth\u2019s brother, Imran Okoth, told CNN: \u201cNo comment. It\u2019s a personal matter.\u201d The alleged mother of Okoth\u2019s child declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Nairobians immediately took to social media with the hashtag #Sonko to jokingly warn each other not to share their secrets with the governor, who would inevitably spill them in a very public manner.<\/p>\n

But Sonko claimed to have a higher purpose for his utterances. He\u00a0declared to the mourners: \u201cMy humble appeal is that even as we prepare to bury Ken, let\u2019s not forget his son. He too needs and has a right to participate in the send-off of his beloved dad. The family should accept that Honourable Okoth\u2019s son enjoys legal protection and recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sonko, who has three children, can best be described as a maverick operator. But his comments reflect a very real problem in Kenya, where many children go through life without any paternal assistance.<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a02014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS), almost half of Kenyan children did not live with both biological parents and 22% of children come from single mother households even though their fathers are alive.<\/p>\n

In a 2017 case\u00a0in which a man pleaded poverty as the mitigating factor in his inability to support his child, a high court judge ruled that men cannot escape the responsibility of providing for their children even if they claim to not have the means to do so.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Sonko continued the debate about parental responsibility by taking aim at his fellow politicians. He posted two phone numbers on his\u00a0Facebook page\u00a0and invited women to contact his office if they\u2019d had similar experiences with lawmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen sending details on which MP, Senator, Governor, Businessman has impregnated you, remember to send his full names and the position he holds plus any photos or videos of those happy moments so that we expose them,\u201d he\u00a0said in another post.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Sonko announced on Facebook that he had received numerous complaints from women via his hotline. His \u201cinvestigation,\u201d as he described it, found that numerous politicians had impregnated their girlfriends and had \u201crefused to take responsibilities [for] their babies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sonko said evidence of some of these transgressions would be published soon in newspapers and on his Facebook page. None of these claims could be verified by CNN.<\/p>\n

The fallout from Sonko\u2019s comments at the funeral split opinions in Kenya\u2019s capital. Was the governor right in exposing his legislator friend\u2019s alleged infidelity so publicly?<\/p>\n

Brandish Kotia, a restaurant owner, told CNN: \u201cWhat Sonko did wasn\u2019t right. Those are family affairs. They could have just talked to each other, there was no need to make it so public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary, a shopkeeper in Nairobi\u2019s Westlands District who declined to give her last name due to the sensitivities of commenting on politicians, agreed with Sonko: \u201cIt will be a lesson to everybody. There is too much hiding and when you try to tell the men, they don\u2019t want to hear about it. But now everybody will be alert.\u201d<\/p>\n

The men CNN spoke to largely refused to comment and shook their heads at the governor\u2019s audacity. \u201cHe\u2019s letting us men down,\u201d said a taxi driver, before he drove off.<\/p>\n

And despite the governor\u2019s public concern for single mothers, there have also been growing questions about how the Kenyan parliament treats its women members. In June, a male legislator was accused of physically assaulting a female MP, and last week a female MP was kicked out of parliament for bringing her five-month-old baby into the chamber because current rules do not allow children.<\/p>\n

There has been tension too between female legislators, women\u2019s rights groups and Sonko after the episode at the funeral.<\/p>\n

Suba North MP Millie Odhiambo, a member of the opposition party Orange Democratic Movement, criticized the governor, leading to a\u00a0heated exchange online.<\/p>\n

She wrote that, unlike the governor, she doesn\u2019t \u201cyap at funerals,\u201d adding that she had worked hard to pass laws that protect all children. \u201cI \u2026 pushed for article 53 of the constitution that protects the late Ken Okoth\u2019s son. Once the DNA confirms that he is Ken Okoth\u2019s son, he will be entitled under the succession law to inherit from Ken\u2019s estate. He is protected. He is covered,\u201d\u00a0Odhiambo said.<\/p>\n

The governor took the bait and shot back to Odhiambo in yet another\u00a0Facebook post: \u201cI am longing for the day you shall open your legs to give birth to a child so that you experience the pain that the mothers I am defending go through. You must respect those single mothers who struggle with their kids as men go missing.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, Sonko lost the respect of Memory Kachambwa, executive director of African Women\u2019s Development & Communication Network, which works for gender equality and women\u2019s empowerment across 47 countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot speak from both corners of your mouth and apply double standards as you purport to speak for women,\u201d Kachambwa told CNN. \u201cIt is absurd to aspire to do so when your utterances and actions are heavily sexist and objectify the very same women you claim to speak for. And in any case, who said women cannot speak for themselves?\u201d<\/p>\n

Poverty is an unlikely problem for Kenyan legislators, who are paid 76 times what an average Kenyan makes in a year \u2014 the second-highest figure in the world after Nigeria, according to an Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) study in 2013 and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).<\/p>\n

Given such salaries, many average Kenyans would say that politicians who err in this way ought to be able to afford to look after their offspring.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CNN\u2019s efforts to reach Sonko and his staff for comment were unsuccessful. When asked about the governor\u2019s comments, Okoth\u2019s brother, Imran Okoth, told CNN: \u201cNo comment. It\u2019s a personal matter.\u201d The alleged mother of Okoth\u2019s child declined to comment. Nairobians immediately took to social media with the hashtag #Sonko to jokingly warn each other not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":685653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-685652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-odd-but-true"],"yoast_head":"\nMP's affair revealed by friend at his funeral - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/08\/19\/mps-affair-revealed-by-friend-at-his-funeral\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"MP's affair revealed by friend at his funeral - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"CNN\u2019s efforts to reach Sonko and his staff for comment were unsuccessful. 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