Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

By Bernice Mbugua and Nyaboga Kiage

The proverbial 40 days of a thief finally dawned on a South Sudanese who had beaten the law systems to avoid paying a hotel bill when the magistrate identified him while in court on a different charge.

The man, who had been in hiding as he avoided a warrant of arrest pending against him, was eventually forced to spend three days on the cold floors of police cells after his tricks were let out.

Troubles for the fugitive, Toni Taban Suliman Malish began on Monday when Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku identified him as the man whom she had issued a warrant of arrest in another case.

Malish had been arraigned in court and charged with another case of forging stamps and being unlawfully present in Kenya. Mutuku however upon looking at him realised he had another case which he had a warrant of arrest against him.

Attempts by Malish to deny the claims and insist on being innocent flatly failed as the magistrate maintained that he has the suspect she had been trying to find about his whereabouts. With his past uncovered, Malish, gave in to Ms Mutuku’s revelations.

In the case, he had been accused of failing to pay a hotel bill of Sh190,000 in Sankara hotel. According to the Magistrate, a warrant of arrest was issued against Malish after he failed to appear in court.

“You asked for time so that you could pay the bill but you never came back to court to explain whether you paid,” said the magistrate.

Malish however claimed that he had paid the bill and his lawyer had informed him there was no need to come back to court.

Yesterday state prosecutor Anderson Gikunda confirmed that the bill had been paid and asked the court for one more day to avail Sankara representative for withdrawal of the case.

“The Sankara hotel manager is seeking more time to avail himself to withdraw the charges,” Gikunda told the court.

Chief Magistrate Mutuku directed the matter be mentioned today for formal withdrawal. In the current case, he is accused that on unknown dates and places within the republic of Kenya jointly with others before court, he forged an impressed rubber stamp purporting it to be genuine one from the immigration department of Kenya.

He is also accused of unlawfully being in Kenya. According to the charge sheet, on February 19 at Kilimani Police station in Kilimani sub-county within Nairobi County he was found to be unlawfully present in Kenya.

The prosecution told the court that they intend to oppose his release on bail today. It has also emerged that Malish is wanted in Australia to answer to charges related to fraud charges.

Malish, 28, is on Australia’s “most wanted” list over a suspected banking fraud case where he is accused of using stolen cheques worth hundreds of millions of shillings.