• Gichira said a car pulled next to him and one of the three occupants called him by name.
• He said the occupants robbed him of his valuables before they sprayed him with an unknown chemical, that made him fall asleep until the following day on May 24.
Presidential aspirant Peter Solomon Gichira has dropped out of the race.
Gichira said he dropped his bid after a kidnapping and robbery incident in Nairobi’s Eastlands.
The aspirant alias Ptah Solomuz Gichira on May 25, walked to Lungalunga police station claiming he had been abducted two days earlier.
Gichira said he was abducted as he made his way to Bomas of Kenya for a pre-nomination meeting with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
The independent presidential aspirant has since written to IEBC saying he will not contest for the presidency as earlier planned.
“Consequently, I hereby terminate my candidature for the elective position of the president of the Republic of Kenya. I wish you - the IEBC staff and all candidates - safe and successful elections,” he said in the letter.
Police confirmed that he reported the matter at the station.
In the letter dated May 25, Gichira said he was abducted by unknown people on May 23 at about 8.37 am, before he was later dumped along Lungalunga road in Nairobi.
“In the process, I lost all my signed forms supporting my candidature; copies of national identity cards that I had collected in support of the signatures; an external hard disk and laptop both with electronic data of the signed forms, my phone and ID card,” Gichira said.
He said the incident happened as he waited for a taxi at Tena estate, along Outer Ring Road.
Gichira said a car pulled next to him and one of the three occupants called him by name.
He said as he checked who they were, they pushed him inside and ordered him to unlock his mobile phone.
Gichira said the occupants then robbed him before spraying him with an unknown chemical, that made him fall asleep until the following day on May 24 at around 6 am.
He said a good samaritan took him to hospital, helped him with a mobile phone to call his wife and later went to report the mater.
The presidential hopeful told IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati he looks forward to conclusive investigations on the incident by the police.
“I have sought to provide this detailed account of my abduction to you, so that you may consider working in close collaboration with the National Police Service, in beefing up the security of candidates and that of the entire election,” he said.
Gichira said having considered the time, effort and financial resources involved in a fresh exercise of collecting signatures, he found his candidature no longer tenable.
Also, the timelines that the IEBC has for the documents and the trauma he had been subjected to, made the process untenable.
Police handling the matter said they plan to visit the places he said the incident took place to confirm the same.
Gichira was in 2017 arrested and later charged in court after he allegedly tried to commit suicide by jumping off the sixth floor of IEBC offices in Nairobi.
This was after IEBC told him he would not be cleared to present his papers and run as an independent candidate for the presidential seat.
He was later acquitted of an attempted suicide charge and malicious damage to property.
Chief magistrate Francis Andayi, however, convicted him on the charge of creating a disturbance at IEBC offices.
The court discharged Gichira, but warned him not to commit any other offence in the six months that followed.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)