Court orders police to accompany auctioneers targeting Salasya's car

The Kakamega Small Claims Court has asked police to give an auctioneer security as he moves in to attach Mumias East MP Peter Salasya’s Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) for failure to pay up a Sh500,000 debt.

The court adjudicator Caroline Cheruiyot granted Armok Auctioneers the right to be protected as they go for the vehicle which a businessman Robert Lutta obtained the orders to sell so that he recovers a sum the said amount he loaned the MP who has since refused to refund.

“I order that the Officer in Charge of Shianda (OCS) Police Station, or any nearest police station officer in the rank of OCS provides adequate security to M/S Armok Auctioneers to proceed and attach the proclaimed property (Land Cruiser KDK037L),” reads the order by Cheruiyot.

The auctioneers attached the high-end car after carrying out a search and identifying it indeed belonged to the MP.

They tabled before the court the logbook detailing its engine power rating (4600cc), color (gold), and year of manufacture (2016) among other details.

On November 27, last year, the court ordered Salasya to pay the businessman Sh500,000 plus interest as it dismissed his counterclaim against paying the debt as inadequate, implausible and dissuasive.

“The counterclaim by the respondent (Salasya) was inconsistent. He first claimed that he had personally loaned the claimant (Lutta) Sh1 million which he (Lutta) was repaying only to change during the hearing by saying that he loaned the money through a proxy,” read part of the judgment.

“The proxy in question, one Bernard Kemba, could in turn not even identify the claimant (Lutta) even after an identification parade was carried out in court.”

The court noted that the businessman had bank transfer proof to back his claim that he loaned Salasya the Sh500,000 that he refused to pay, the latter lacked binding evidence to show that he loaned Lutta the alleged Sh1 million.

Lutta sued the MP through lawyer Edwin Wafula, on October 23 last year alleging that he innocently loaned Salasya the amount in the hope that he would refund it in two months but has since become elusive. 

“Being a friend for so many years I accepted to advance him the amount on December 13 last year (2022),” he said in his court papers. 

“On the material day, I proceeded to the Kenya Commercial Bank -Mumias Branch where I made a direct transfer of the Sh500,000 to the personal account of the MP who promised to refund the amount within a period of two months from the date of the transaction.” 

Lutta regretted that the MP popular as 'PK' had failed, refused, neglected and ignored to refund the amount despite frequent reminders.