• Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi had allegedly escaped a police dragnet at his home residence in Kapseret on Friday night.
• What started a false alarm post on the social media that the lawmaker was to address the press in Bomet town degenerated into a reality that never was.
Security officers in Bomet town were for the better part of Saturday on high alert after reports emerged that Kapseret MP had sneaked into the county.
Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi had allegedly escaped a police dragnet at his residence on Friday night.
What started a false alarm post on the social media that the lawmaker was to address the press in Bomet town degenerated into a reality that never was.
It spread like a bushfire among the residents with security officers and journalists being forced to run up and down combing the major hotels within the town in his search.
It was not immediately known whether the originator of the post did it by design to confuse the security officers or it was just another fake and deceptive alert meant to attract internet traffic.
During all that time no one knew exactly where the seemingly relentless legislator who kept updating the Kenyans on his next course was.
A post updated on his official Facebook page at around 10am indicating he was willing to surrender to the police on Monday was, however, deleted minutes later.
But, it remained unclear if he was the one operating the account.
Attempts by the officers to activate their tracking systems as they intensified their searches for the legislator on his phone numbers also bore no fruits.
The legislator had cunningly switched off all his mobile phones to make it hard for the officers and anyone looking for him difficult.
Some of the managers of the hotels we spoke to said detectives started visiting their premises as early as 9am in the morning to confirm if indeed he was around.
“I received a call from the DCIO in the morning inquiring if Sudi was in our hotel and I told him he is not around…some few minutes later police vehicles started arriving and kept coming, they also questioned the workers before leaving,” said the manager.
Armed security officers aboard two land cruisers also kept doing patrols in the town in anticipation of an ugly incident that could occur.
At around 3pm after several attempts and concerted efforts between the joint security teams in trying to locate the whereabouts of the MP failed, the officers gave up.
County Police commander Naomi Ichami also confirmed to have gotten the rumors about Sudi’s presence in the town.
Asked on whether they would have arrested him if found, the police boss only said, “The laws of Kenya are applied everywhere, they are not confined to one particular area.”