The adage that when it rains, it pours seems to have caught up with Meru Senator Mithika Linturi going by unfolding events around him.

Barely a day after Nakuru Chief Magistrate Edna Nyaloti dismissed a miscellaneous application by detectives who had sought to investigate him over incitement remarks, Linturi now faces a fresh arrest over claims that he forged signatures to secure a Sh530 million bank loan with properties of his estranged wife, Maryanne Kitany, as collateral.

Also roped in the latest case are Linturi’s personal assistant Emmily Buantai, Family Bank, Daudi Kiema and Sarah Kabucho  (Family Bank employees), Josephine Wambua (Family Bank advocate) and Kenneth Gathuma (officer at the Registrar of Companies), who together with the Senator, face 37 charges.

Charges range from abuse of office, impersonation, conspiracy to defraud, fraudulently procuring registration of charge documents and making of false documents among others.

Three charges

Linturi and Buantai alone face 19 counts of forgery, five counts of fraudulently procuring registration of a charge, three counts each of intent to defraud and conspiracy to defraud and one count each for giving false information to a person employed in the Public Service, making false document and obtaining credit by false pretence.

Family Bank is enjoined in three charges of conspiracy to defraud Baron Estates. The bank is accused of having failed to undertake due diligence on documents presented by Linturi and Buantai and instead securing them loans using forged papers.

Court had given Linturi a reprieve over the accusations in November last year when it barred detectives from arresting and charging him over claims that he forged signatures to secure a Sh530 million bank loan using properties belonging to Kitany without her knowledge and consent.

Justice Hedwig Ong’udi had ruled that the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) had ignored Linturi’s complaints when he recommended the lawmaker to face forgery, among other charges in a property dispute pitting him against Kitany.

Linturi, while under a certificate of urgency as he sought for anticipatory bail orders, had argued that DCI shelved his complaints regarding fraudulent change of directorship, shareholding and share capital at Atticon for more than two years and instead prioritised the complaint by Kitany in which he was being accused of obtaining credit facilities using her company. Linturi had then claimed that DCI had made the recommendations at a time he had filed a complaint at the Banking Fraud Investigations Unit.

Judge directed DCI to consider Linturi’s complaint and to resubmit the file to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions within 90 days for action.

Receives consent

The 90 days elapsed on February 28 and by which time; DCI had consolidated the two files and resubmitted to the DPP, who has subsequently authorised the Senator’s arrest and prosecution. 

Yesterday, DCI boss George Kinoti said his officers have completed all their investigations and received consent from the DPP to charge Linturi.

“It is only paper works left before we swing into action. We are now ready to proceed with the matter,” Kinoti said without elaborating further.

A brief dated February 24 from the investigating officer Obadiah Kariuki to the DPP states: “The true position of the complaint by the petitioners was that the matter was fully investigated vide inquiry file number 48/2019 and the petitioner (Linturi) found culpable for arrest and prosecution.”