Mungatana in court to avoid arrest

By Patrick Beja

Garsen MP Danson Mungatana presented himself to a Mombasa court on Monday evening to avoid arrest.

The legislator met the Mombasa Chief Magistrate Stephen Riech at his chambers where his arrest warrant issued last week was quashed.

Earlier, Riech had declared that a warrant of arrest against Mungatana was still in force.

This is after the legislator failed to appear before him to answer charges of issuing a bouncing cheque.

When the arrest warrant was issued last Thursday, Mungatana’s lawyers said the MP had not come to court because he had been taken ill and was admitted in a hospital in Nairobi.

But earlier on Monday, his lawyer Kiume Kioko told the court that Mungatana was out of hospital and needed ten days’ rest.

Mungatana has been charged that on June 20,m last year, in Mombasa County he issued three Co-operative Bank cheques of Sh700,000 each to Chwile Investment knowing his account had insufficient funds.

Earlier, Kioko argued that his client was a public figure and an advocate of the high court and could not disappear. “I plead that you direct that the accused person appears before you within ten days,” he said.

The prosecution told the court that since Mungatana was not admitted in hospital, the lawyer should have produced him in court.

Mungatana said what he was facing was a trade dispute and that the truth would come out. “I believe in justice of this court and that is why I had to make an appearance although I am not feeling well,” said Mungatana after the chamber session.