Margaret Nyakang’o, the Controller of Budget, spoke out on Wednesday, December 6, about her controversial arrest, arraignment in court in Mombasa, and eventual release, which all began in Nairobi’s Karen estate.
In an interview with Citizen TV, Nyakang’o revealed that she had been on leave since the beginning of the month and that she was out playing golf in Karen on Monday, December 4th before returning home.
She did, however, reveal that while walking with her husband, she noticed a vehicle following them, with its occupants emerging and informing her that she needed to record a statement at the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) in Nairobi’s Central Business District (CBD).
Nyakang’o persuaded the officers to take the statement from her home office, but they were determined to take her to the city, adding that one of the officers had asked her to dress warmly, which left her wondering why.
The Controller of Budget then indicated that she was taken to the CBK at the Anti-Banking Fraud Unit which is manned by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) but did not record a statement there.
“One of the officers asked me to look for a trouser and something warm, I wondered why. I offered to write the statement from my home office but they said no, ‘we go to town’.
“They took me to the CBK office but I was never given any papers to write. They then told me that they were under instructions to take me to Mombasa,” she narrated.
Nyakang’o added that she told the officers that she had not eaten the entire day, a matter to which the officers responded by allowing her husband to get her some food, which he did and brought some for the officers.
She further noted that her husband was asked to return home, as she took the long night journey to Mombasa by road, a nearly 8-hour journey covering 483.5 kilometres, arriving at the Coastal city on Tuesday morning.
The CoB stated that she arrived in Mombasa at around 7.30 am and was taken to the CBK Mombasa office where the DCI officers from Nairobi handed her matter over to the Mombasa team before she was processed in court for prosecution.
Nyakang’o was arraigned before the court over conspiracy to defraud, operating an unlicensed Sacco, forgery, and uttering false documents, contrary to section 353 of the Penal Code.
She pleaded not guilty to the four charges before the court where she was one of 11 individuals implicated in the offences. As a result, she was released on a Ksh2 million bond, with the option of a similar surety or Ksh500,000 in cash.
The charges emerged from an inquiry file initiated by the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) and handed over to the DCI.
During the interview, she expressed her surprise that out of the 11 individuals linked to the offences, she was the only one presented in court after the night road trip, adding “I don’t know who is looking for me. I don’t know who is after me.”
