A Kitui MCA's cat and mouse game with the police over the theft of a Sh30 million county bulldozer has ended with his arrest.
Sylvester Munyalo Kitheka, who is said to be ailing, will be arraigned on Wednesday, according to police commander in charge of Matinyani sub-county.
Kitheka is said to have gone underground soon after the county prosecution office ordered his arrest and that of his aide on October 16 in connection with the theft of the bulldozer in August.
The machinery, which was doing road works in the MCA's ward, was found in Ruiru, more than 100 kilometres away.
The arrest order of Kitheka and Bizmark Nzivu was issued by Kitui DPP coordinator Bonny Okemwa.
Acting county Lands and Infrastructure chief officer John Kunga had soon after the bulldozer recovery remarked that it was intriguing how such a huge machine was moved such long distance without being noticed.
An anonymous caller had spotted it at a desolate place in Ruiru. The CID pointed an accusing finger at the MCA and recommended his prosecution along that of his aide as other accomplices "yet to be found".
A man hunt was ordered after Kitheka went underground when he learnt that he was being sought.
At some point the CID picked his phone signal in Nairobi and rushed there only to pick the same signal in Hola, Tana River.
The detectives caught up with ward rep on Tuesday last week at Kitui county referral hospital where he had "ostensibly" gone for treatment and arrested him.
Matinyani sub-county police commander John Sawe said the MCA claimed to be unwell and he was freed on police bond to present himself in court on Wednesday, November 4.
“The MCA is sickly and he was therefore given police bond to appear in court on November 4,” he said by phone.
Okemwa had last month said the suspects were to appear in court but could not do so due to an error in the file presented to him by detectives.
“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 had said.
He at the time said another person of interest had recanted his statement and that needed to be dealt with before the matter was brought to court.
Sawe said 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 direction,” he 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.
- mwaniki fm
