Police to probe if Sonko has warrant

File | NATION Gideon Mbuvi alias Mike Sonko, after he was declared winner in the Makadara constituency by-election in Nairobi last month.

By FRED MUKINDA fmukinda@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Tuesday, October 5 2010 at 22:00
In Summary

CID boss says Makadara MP will be seized if investigation unearths he is wanted for past crime

Makadara MP Gideon Kioko Mbuvi will be arrested if there is a warrant of arrest against him, the director of criminal investigations has said.

Responding to questions by the Nation after it emerged that Kibera chief magistrate Ms Catherine Mwangi issued a warrant against a person with the same name, CID boss Ndegwa Muhoro said he would take action.

“Warrants don’t expire unless they are executed or withdrawn by the courts,” he said.

But he said he did not have information that Mr Mbuvi has a criminal record or that there are warrants against him and promised to find out.

Lawyer Paul Muite explained that Mr Mbuvi’s status as MP was not in question as he had not been convicted.

He said an MP could only be disqualified if he or she had served time in jail and not because of an investigation.

“The question one should be asking is why the police, the attorney general and director of public prosecutions have not acted and yet his co-accused was in jail for four years,” he said.

A court issued a warrant of arrest against one Gidion Kioko Mbuvi for jumping bail in a Sh18 million fraud case in 2005, court records show.

Ms Mwangi issued the warrant on August 4, 2005 after a request by the prosecution.

Mr Mbuvi appeared in court charged with forgery and applied for bail. He was freed on a Sh100,000 bond, surety in the same amount and a contact person.

When he failed to appear in court, the prosecution asked for the warrant. But the police did not arrest Mr Mbuvi and the case was closed, although the warrant appears to be still in force.

“The court file is closed but the warrant of arrest will remain in force,” the magistrate ruled after the failure to arrest him.

Mr Mbuvi had been accused, together with others not in court, of obtaining blankets and fabrics using a forged local purchase order allegedly issued by a government ministry.

He denied three charges of forgery, uttering a false document and obtaining goods by pretences. He was freed after Ms Florence Ngenyi Kavoi stood surety and Mr Peter Wambua Kaluki of Prisons as contact person.