• County director of communication Richard Chacha said they have not been arrested.
• Mombasa resident judge Erick Ogola issued the warrant of arrest.
The High Court in Mombasa has ordered the arrest of county chief officer of Finance and the Finance and Economic Planning executive over an unpaid Sh18.5 million debt.
Mombasa resident judge Erick Ogola issued a warrant of arrest against chief officer Aisha Abdi and CEC Maryam Mbaruk.
Regional police commander Marcus Ocholla was told to effect the order unless they pay Robinson Onyango the money.
Onyango had rendered legal services to the county government in a miscellaneous case no 417 of 2016 but the county government failed to pay him.
The order further requires the police boss to ensure the two are presented before the court where they will be committed to a jail term of six months for wilful disobedience of orders issued on January 2018.
However, county director of communication Richard Chacha said they have not been arrested.
Chacha said the county's legal department was handling the matter and, therefore, he could not divulge more information on the issue.
"I will not give much information on the issue because it is being handled by the legal department. However, we respect the court and, therefore, the department is working on it," Chacha said.
In January, Justice Ogola gave the county government a 60-day period to pay Onyango through his law firm Robinson and Company Advocate Sh18,503,699.
The amount included Sh15,147,698 decretal amount, Sh3,329,501 interest incurred from the decretal while Sh5,000 was to carter for further costs as well as execution officer’s cost of 20,000 with collection fee set at sh 1,500.
However, the Governor Hassan Joho-led government failed to comply with the court directives.
“In default of earlier orders, a warrant of arrest has been issued against the county officials after lapsing of the given 60 days,” the judge said.
Edited by Pamela Wanambisi