A member of the Kitui assembly and two other individuals are to be charged with stealing a Sh30 million bulldozer belonging to the county government.
Kitui county principal prosecutor Bonny Okemwa said the three were to appear in court this week but did not because of an error in the file presented to him by detectives.
The bulldozer was stolen in August during road works in Matinyani ward. It was recovered in Ruiru, Kiambu county, more than 100 kilometres away.
“We are returning the file to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations officers so that they can work on the gaps we noted in the file,” Okemwa said.
Okemwa said another person of interest had recanted his statement and that needed to be dealt with before the matter is taken to court.
He said that once the detectives have corrected the errors in the file, the suspects will be arraigned.
Matinyani subcounty police boss John Sawe said the bulldozer was stolen through a web of individuals but the MCA had been implicated by several witnesses.
“It appears that the plan to steal the bulldozer was carried out digitally and police had to make sense of communication threads pointing to the culpability of the MCA and other people. The file has been submitted to the office of the DPP for directions,” Sawe told the Star by phone.
When the bulldozer was recovered, county authorities were at pains to explain how the huge machinery was moved to Kiambu without being noticed.
Acting Kitui Lands and Infrastructure chief officer John Kunga said then that the bulldozer was recovered following a tip-off from an anonymous caller. The call came a week after it was reported missing.
Kunga said the machinery was intact and its engine was in a sound state. It was moved to Matinyani police station and detectives began their investigations.
