By John Mutiso
A Member of the Kisii County Assembly has been taken into custody by detectives following a series of complaints accusing him of running fake foreign travel schemes.
The MCA is said to have collected money from residents after promising to help them secure travel opportunities, especially to Canada.
According to reports, the MCA was arrested after several victims stepped forward claiming they had been tricked into paying large sums of money for the supposed travel arrangements.
On Wednesday, November 19, he was arraigned before Senior Principal Magistrate John Nyariki at the Kisii Law Courts, where he faced charges of defrauding a woman of Ksh180,000.
Despite the accusations, the MCA denied claims that he received Ksh183,000 from the woman between 2022 and 2023.
He insisted that he never took the money under the promise of helping her travel to Canada. After the plea, the court allowed him to be released on a cash bail of Ksh100,000.
However, prosecutors strongly opposed his release, arguing that more victims had already filed similar complaints.
They told the court that many other individuals were coming forward, each claiming to have lost hundreds of thousands of shillings to the MCA. Because of this, the prosecution said he could easily flee and asked the court to consider tougher bail conditions.
The MCA’s lawyer rejected these claims, stating that the prosecution had not provided any affidavits or concrete evidence to support the call for strict bail terms.
The lawyer also emphasized that bail is a constitutional right and reminded the court that the MCA is an elected leader who lives and works in Kisii, making him easily traceable.
In a dramatic twist, detectives reportedly arrested the MCA again immediately after he walked out of the courtroom.
This second arrest was linked to a different complaint in which he is accused of swindling another resident out of Ksh70,000.
Investigations into both incidents are still ongoing as more details continue to emerge.
