Kisii governor Paul Simba Arati and former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko are involved in a silent war on who should take care of blind three-year-old baby Junior Sagini.
The incident which led to the baby being blinded has been turned into a political mileage machine as the two political heavyweights fight over the right to assist him.
It has emerged the two are fighting over who between two can publicly offer the best assistance to him.
Sonko Sunday, December 26 issued a scathing attack on unnamed dirty-minded politicians from Kisii who have denied him access to the boy even after he offered to fly him to Shenzen, China to get eye implants.
“Despite my efforts to help I have not had access to them due to bad politics being played around by some dirty-minded politicians who think I’m in this case for PR and political mileage purposes but that won’t stop me from pursuing the matter,” tweeted Sonko.
He claimed the baby had already missed two appointments at a Nairobi hospital where a preliminary assessment needed to be done before Sagini could be flown out for surgery.
“Last week Baby Sagini missed two important appointments with Dr. Kishor at the Westlands laser eye hospital coz we wanted the baby’s review report to be emailed to China so that we can start the process of flying him there for the implant of artificial eyes,” said Sonko.
Sonko added politicizing the issue and denying me access to him and his sister will not stop me from helping.
The boy is currently under protective custody facilitated by governor Arati who had on his own offered to finance Sagini’s education all the way to university.
The governor equally pledged to offset the Sh100,000 medical bill accrued after Sagini was hospitalized following the incident where a gang kidnapped him and gouged out his eyes.
Arati has personally instructed that Sonko does not get access to the boy for unknown reasons and kept the location of the safe house where the baby is a top secret.
Sagini requires all the help he can get.
The former Nairobi governor is known to be philanthropic but has in the past used such cases to endear himself to the public.
He paraded several clothes he bought for the child and his seven-year-old sister.
He said he is determined to help the family.
The child, his sister and his mother were taken to safe custody last week.
This was after the child was discharged from the hospital he has been for more than a week.
There are efforts to get him more specialized treatment.
Investigations have linked the attack to land tussles in the home.
Sagini was in the line of inheritance of their land which police say was not going down well with some members of the family.
Three suspects including his aunt, grandmother and cousin have been charged with causing bodily harm to him.
The three were charged that between the 13th and 14th day of December 2022 at Ikuruma location, Marani Subcounty
within Kisii county, attempted unlawfully to cause the death of Brighton Junior Sagini by gouging out both his eyes contrary to section 220 of the Penal Code.
The accused persons pleaded not guilty to the criminal offense.
