• Through lawyer John Khaminwa, Barasa wants the court to grant him anticipatory bail.
• He says people alleging to be NIS officials have told him to go slow on his support for DP Ruto.
Image: FILE
Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa has sought to stop his arrest over a public service vehicle he sold to a businessman four years ago.
Barasa says he sold the matatu to Irungu Mwangi through an agent but the businessman broke their sale agreement leading to the current standoff.
Through lawyer John Khaminwa, he wants the court to grant him anticipatory bail ahead of his looming arrest.
“We pray that the court admits the MP to reasonable bail terms pending the investigations and arrest by officers under the command of the IG as a result of the complaint made by Irungu against the MP,” a court document reads.
Barasa claims he was involved in a commercial transaction sometime in 2016 when he sold the matatu to Irungu, who was a willing buyer for good value consideration.
“Irungu, being in breach of the agreement, has chosen to make unwarranted allegations against the MP, seeking to extort from him a colossal sum of money under the guise of compensation for a nonexistent breach of the sale agreement to purchase the vehicle,” Khaminwa argues.
The MP says he has been receiving calls from people alleging to be NIS officials that he should go slow on his support for DP William Ruto as all the deputy president's allies are being targeted with court cases.
“The said people have advised me that I should not attend any meetings as the police will want to arrest me in public to completely humiliate me,” he claims.
The legislator has accused Irungu of using officers under the control of the Inspector General of Police to harass him under the guise of criminal investigations. He argues that the alleged complaint is a civil matter and not a criminal as the complainant has other avenues open to recover money from him.
“The intimidating, oppressive, unreasonable and threatening conduct and behaviour of the police officers is causing the MP to suffer untold mental anxiety with serious ramifications to his mental and physical state in complete contravention of his rights,” court papers read.
The MP says he owned and operated three matatus on Kitengela routes. A vehicle was sold to Irungu and they signed a sale agreement, which, according to Barasa, Irungu later breached.
“Since I had taken a loan with Rafiki Micro Finance Ltd with the vehicle as security and I still had an outstanding balance of about Sh187,000, I instructed to tell him that I was selling the vehicle for Sh700,000 and that 500,000 should be deposited in my account and the balance of Sh200,000 be paid directly to Rafiki Micro Finance to enable it to release the logbook,” Barasa says in court documents.
He adds that Irungu did not deposit the Sh200,000 to Rafiki as agreed and instead chose to continue paying the loan in instalments.