Firm wants Mombasa court to help it recover Sh12 million tyres from police

A Mombasa-based company wants the High Court in Mombasa to help it recover tyres worth Sh12 million it says were confiscated by police in April this year.

Multilink General Suppliers Limited wants Justice Eric Ogola to order release of the tyres that the company alleges have been handed to Sino Trailers Kenya Limited, with whom it has a dispute, without their involvement or inventory.

The company that sells motor vehicle and tuk-tuk tyres among other motor accessories has sued the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Attorney General (AG), Inspector General of police (IG) and the Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI) for the loss of the said goods.

Also sued are police officers Washington Njue, Okello Juma, Bonaya Bonso and Ali Hassan who it says seized the tyres from the company’s premises.

The courts allowed the DPP application to drop off from the suit as there was no criminal proceedings opened against any of the parties. It also allowed Sino Trailers Kenya Limited to join the suit.

Sino Trailers had launched a complaint with police that Multilink revoked a cheque payment after they supplied then with the said tyres.

Police then proceeded to confiscate the tyres from Multilink, held the cargo at the regional CID headquarters in Mombasa and later released them to Sino Trailers allegedly without involving Multilink.

Multilink’s director Daniel Kinyua Njuguna, said the police unjustifiably seized the tyres and rims worth Sh12 million and released them to Sino Trailers.

He told Justice Eric Ogola that on April 8 and 10, Juma, Bonso and Hassan conducted a raid at his company’s premises, seized the tyres and detained them at Mombasa CID regional headquarters without proper inventory.

He wants the court to order the officers to produce the inventory that was used to release the goods to their rival company. He at the same time testified that the police threatened to raid Multilink premises located in Changamwe Airport Mall again.

He further applied to have the court direct Police Independent Oversight Authority IPOA to investigate the conduct of the officers who seized the tyres.

However, AG’s lawyer Emmanuel Makuto said that police had received a complaint from Sino Trailers Kenya Limited that Multilink had obtained tyres from them and issued them a cheque that was later revoked by Multilink.

He said that an investigation file was opened and police proceeded to Multilink premises and recovered the tyres that were to be used as exhibits in a fraud case.

“The police acted in good faith in the course of duty and should not be bashed, but be parted on the back,” said Makuto.