Details have emerged about how embattled Controller of Budget Margret Nyakang'o was arrested in Nairobi before she was driven to Mombasa on Monday night.
The CoB was on on Tuesday arraigned at a Mombasa court and charged with four counts including forgery and operating a Sacco without a license.
Before she was presented in court, Nyakang'o had been arrested at her Karen home in Nairobi by officers who trailed her from a members club in Karen.
The officers in an unmarked car pulled up at her gate as she was getting into her home with her husband David Nyakang'o after playing golf.
In a tell-it-all interview with Citizen TV on Wednesday, Nyakang'o revealed details of her controversial arrest and subsequent arraignment in Mombasa.
Nyakang'o revealed how what was billed as a statement-taking exercise by the officers ended up being a night-long road trip to Mombasa.
It also emerged that Nyakang'o had been on leave and that she was not arrested in Mombasa while attending an official function as earlier claimed.
"I had been on leave since December 1. We returned home in Karen on Monday and realised there was a vehicle following us. The occupants told me that they wanted me to take a statement from me at the Central Bank of Kenya in the Central Business District," she told Citizen TV on the phone.
According to Nyakang'o, the officers allegedly refused to take her statement from her home office and instead insisted on going with her to the CBK offices that night.
"One of the officers asked me to look for a trouser and something warm, I wondered why. I offered to write the statement from my home offices but they insisted 'No we go to town," she claimed.
Nyakang'o who on Tuesday denied the four charges and was released on a Sh500,000 cash bail, said when they got to the CBK offices in the CBD, she was not allowed to write any statement.
"They took me to the CBK office but I was not given any papers to write. They then told me that they were under instructions to take me to Mombasa,'' she alleged.
At this point, Nyakang'o pleaded with the officers to allow her husband to get her some food to eat as she was hungry and had not eaten anything.
"They allowed my husband to get me some food, which he did and even brought some for the officers," Nyakang'o narrated.
The officers then asked Nyakango's husband to go home as they embarked on a night-long trip with his wife to Mombasa.
When they reached Mombasa on Tuesday morning, she was taken to the CBK offices at 7:30 am where she was handed over to the local DCI officers.
"I was processed and taken to court," she said.
Nyakang’o says her tribulations originated from a SACCO membership she abandoned as soon as she was appointed as the controller of budget, wondering who exactly is after her.
She revealed that in 2019 she saw a call from a Sacco that wanted someone to sit on its board.
"I went to see someone in Nairobi who told me that they wanted to expand the board and bring experts on board. He told me that for me to join the board, I needed to sign up as a member first," Nyakang'o explained.
"I filled the forms and she told me that if I could save up to Sh100,000 by the time of the AGM, I would join the board."
The Controller of Budget said that after she was successful during vetting as the country's CoB she approached the Sacco and asked to exit as she had gotten a job.
"I converted my savings into two plots, although I added some money," she said.
She later learned that she had been listed as a board member of the Sacco although she had not been confirmed or elected at the AGM as was required.
During investigations into the Sacco, Nyakang'o said she told the investigators that she had been proposed as a board member but was never confirmed at the AGM.
"The investigators appeared satisfied with my explanation then," she said wondering who was now pursuing her.
The CoB's case will be heard in Mombasa on December 13 even as leaders continued to clash over her arrest and arraignment.
On Tuesday, opposition leader Raila Odinga said that Nyakang'o's arrest was largely expected and did not come as a surprise to ODM and Kenyans.
He said the CoB finds herself in the position she is now courtesy of her resolve to uphold integrity and professionalism.
"It was only a matter of when or not Nyakang'o was going to be sent packing on frivolous and trumped-up charges to create room for a user-friendly holder of the office," Raila claimed.
"As a party, we stand with Nyakang'o and will offer whatever help we can in the interest of the war against corruption in the country. This struggle will be nasty and long but it is one Kenyans cannot afford to lose," the ODM leader said.
"We will lead that struggle from the front."
The charges levelled against her and her co-accused are conspiracy to defraud contrary to Section 317 of the Penal Code, operating a Sacco without a licence Contrary to Section 24 as read with Section 66 of the Sacco Societies Act, 2008, forgery and uttering a false document c/s 353 of the Penal Code.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions approved the charges in a letter to the DCI on November 30.
