It has now been established that Embu County Speaker, Mr Justus Kariuki Mate was attempting to get a fake certificate of good conduct right before he disappeared from a meeting at Utalii Hotel on Tuesday and went missing for three days.
In a police statement, Nicholas Muriuki Kangani, a Corporal based at the CID headquarters said that Mr Mate had asked him to assist in getting the certificate stating that the county speaker feared that he could not obtain them through the proper channels. His fears stemmed from the an incident in March 2008 investigators from Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission arrested Mate over an alleged attempt to solicit for a bribe for Halima Hassan to be nominated to the Nairobi City Council. The county speaker was caught red handed on camera receiving Sh140,000 in treated cash and was then arraigned in court and charged with fraud. At the time, he was an aide to the then Local Government minister, Uhuru Kenyatta.
Mate allegedly told Muriuki that he needed to put his records in order because of the internal wrangles that had led to the impeachment of Embu Governor, Martin Wambora.
The Corporal further stated that he did not go to Utalii Hotel where Mate and other Embu County leaders were meeting. However he confirmed that he had called Mate on his phone to discuss the issuance of the certificate of good conduct.
"Mate had said that he could not get the certificate because he had been charged. Criminal Records Office still have the record. He wanted someone to delete the record. I told him to come to CID headquarters with the court proceedings that cleared him so that I can take him to the relevant office," the CID officer said in his statement. "He texted me to meet him at Parliament. I told him I was busy and would see him later. At around 2.40pm he said he had gone to Utalii Hotel and that I could meet him there. I am told he disappeared from the hotel at around 4pm to 4.15pm. I called him at around 5.40pm as I was on Thika Road not knowing that he had gone missing and left his phones," said Muriuki.
"His phone was not picked when I called but I later learned that his personal assistant saw my name on the screen and told the other concerned parties that it must be me that kidnapped him," the statement continues.
Corporal Muriuki was charged with the abduction of Mate and was released on Sh100,000 cash bail by a Nairobi court after he denied the charges.
Mate yesterday reappeared in Limuru where he flagged down a lorry ferrying foodstuffs to Nairobi from Nyahururu and allegedly asked the driver to take him to Gigiri police station. The officers at Gigiri then took him to Aga Khan Hospital where he was treated and discharged. Mate has claimed that he was kidnapped by people who forced him to consume a substance that made him dizzy. He said he left the meeting for a short call before he was kidnapped when he walked to the parking lot to see if the CID officer had arrived. He claimed his abductors were armed with a pistol and beat until he soiled his clothes. He then said that he was abandoned at Kabuku area in Limuru on Thursday night after three days of "captivity”.
However senior police officers in Nairobi yesterday said they are investigating whether the kidnap was stage managed and questioned why Mate did not raise the alarm immediately. Starehe CID officers yesterday questioned a security guard at Utalii Hotel who said that Mate walked out of the hotel gate alone looking for somebody whom he claimed had driven into the hotel to meet him. He also said he did not see Mate walk back. Yesterday CID chief Ndegwa Muhoro, Nairobi county CID chief Ireri Kamwende and Speaker of National Assembly Justin Muturi visited Mate in hospital.
Mate is expected in court soon for allegedly violating High Court orders that barred him from proceeding with the first impeachment of Wambora.
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