Tuesday, September 11, 2012

FRED GUMO LINKED TO ANOTHER MOI CAR



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Two days after Local Government minister Fred Gumo was found with a Range Rover stolen from former President Daniel Moi, it has emerged that he was in 2004 entangled in a police case over a car belonging to the retired head of state. Multiple police sources revealed yesterday that the car, a Volkswagen Combi registration KAE 145K, was detained at Industrial Area police station after Gumo failed to present a logbook before the police could release the car to him.
Yesterday, Moi’s spokesman Lee Njiru yesterday said he will only comment on the issue when he finds out whether the Combi was Moi's official or personal car. “Mzee used to have Combis. However, Mzee has two categories of cars - private and public. The public ones are bought for his office as a constitutional office while as a farmer he buys his own private cars. I need to find out from the officer in charge of transport before I comment,” Njiru said.
It was not clear how the car changed hands. We were, however, able to establish that Gumo's business partner, a Ugandan identified as William Kasujja, had been driving the car in 2004. When he was unable to settle a Sh500,000 bill at Sirona Hotel in Parklands, the hotel allegedly auctioned the vehicle to offset the debt.
A city lawyer bought the car but the Westlands MP reported to the Industrial Area police that his car had been stolen and he knew where it was hidden. Police impounded the car from a garage in Industrial Area and towed it to the police station. Police sources said that when Gumo went to claim the car from the police station, he said Moi had gifted him the vehicle.
“We asked him to produce a logbook or a letter showing that Moi given him the Combi. He did not. That is why the car is still parked at the yard and the investigation file has never been closed,” said a police officer. We could not reach Gumo for comment yesterday as his cellphone was switched off for the better part of the day. We later sent him a text message, which by the time of going to press he had not responded to.
Yesterday, the Star visited the police station and established that the car is still lying at the police yard. Part of it had been destroyed in 2006 by a fire at a garbage dump a few feet away. According to the investigators, the file of the case involving the Combi has remained open to date as no one was charged nor was the car released to its owners.
Police officers said Gumo argued that the Combi was stolen by unidentified people. However, when police investigated further, they discovered that the car was used by Kasujja. According to the police, Kasujja was involved in Gumo’s campaign for Westlands MP in 2002. The fresh details emerged even as police were contemplating charging Gumo with handling stolen goods.
The Star also ascertained that a Mombasa businessman Yusuf Abdalla will this morning appear in court to answer charges of theft of Moi's Range Rover in 2008. Abdalla will face a charge of theft of motor vehicle worth Sh6 million and an alternative charge of handling stolen goods. Moi had placed an order for the Range Rover but had not taken possession of it.
Gumo recorded a statement at the CID headquarters, Kiambu road on Saturday. He told Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Mohammed Amin that he acquired the Range Rover after he traded in his Mercedez Benz worth Sh3 million. In his statement, Abdalla told the police that Gumo is yet to pay Sh3 million and that is why he had declined to give him the logbook.
Sources said CID Director Francis Muhoro had demanded the investigations file from his juniors. It is said that Muhoro was dealing with the probe himself. This week investigators will be counter-checking the details of the recovered Range Rover with the Kenya Revenue Authority to establish how the vehicle was registered. The CID also plans to question CMC officials.
Six people who were charged with the theft of the Range Rover from the CMC yard have since been freed after the charges were withdrawn. The Star broke the story on November 18, 2008, when thieves broke into the supervisor's office at the CMC garage where the key was kept and drove away with the Range Rover.Then, the thieves also tampered with the registration documents to hoodwink the police if they were stopped.
The vehicle, which had yet to be fixed with the new registration number plates, had been taken for a pre-inspection test drive just hours before it was stolen. When the sleek vehicle was stolen from CMC's Industrial Area premises in 2008, the then chief executive of the company, Martin Forster, filed a compensation claim with APA Insurance.
Ashok Shah, the chief executive of the insurance firm and a board member of CMC, refused to pay the Sh18 million claim for the luxurious sports utility car. An angry Forster promptly cancelled the insurance contract that had existed between APA and CMC for nearly two decades.
The incident destroyed the previously cordial relationship between Shah and Forster. Months later, the board demanded a clean-up of CMC's bank reconciliation accounts that culminated in the sacking of Shashi Shah, the group finance director, who apparently had the backing of Ashok Shah.

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