Police in Kakamega County are investigating claims that Mumias East Member of Parliament Peter Salasya threatened to kill a magistrate after an unfavourable ruling in relation to a debt owed to a local businessman.
In a complaint lodged at the Kakamega Police Station on Monday, November 27, Magistrate Gladys Kiama of the Kakamega Small Claims Court claimed that the MP threatened to take her life after she ordered the lawmaker to pay businessman Robert Lutta a debt of Ksh500,000 with accrued interest and cost of the case.
“At around 1230 hours while at Kakamega Law Courts, having delivered a judgement in a small claim matter vide case no. SSC E541/2023 against Hon. Peter Salasya, MP for Mumias East Constituency where he had been sued for failing to refund the money loaned to him by the claimant, he (Salasya) confronted her (Magistrate) outside the courtroom and threatened to kill her and then took off,” the police report reads in part.
“He (Salasya) has since been calling her number and texting threatening messages to her via WhatsApp. Investigations have commenced.”
Police said efforts are underway to arrest the legislator who is still at large.
In the case, Lutta, through lawyer Edwin Wafula, had sued Salasya on October 23, alleging that he innocently loaned Salasya the amount in December last year in the hope that he would repay it in two months, but he became elusive.
He produced documents from a local bank as evidence that he wired the money to the first-term lawmaker.
In his defence, MP Salasya denied borrowing money from the businessman. He instead told the court that he was the one who loaned Lutta Ksh1 million through his political advisor Bernard Kemba.
However, the presiding magistrate dismissed the MP’s counterclaim, terming it as inadequate, impassable and dissuasive.
“The counterclaim by the respondent (Salasya) was inconsistent. He first claimed that he had personally loaned the claimant (Lutta) Ksh1 million, which he (Lutta) was repaying only to change during the hearing by saying that he loaned the money through a proxy,” the judgement read in part.
“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.”
