Court stops Linturi arrest as property row with Maryanne Kitany deepens
Meru Senator Mithika Linturi and his estranged wife Maryanne Kitany.
Meru Senator Mithika Linturi has won a reprieve after the High Court barred the police from arresting and charging him on the basis of complaints filed by his estranged wife, Ms Marianne Kitany.
Justice Hedwig Ong’udi ruled that the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) ignored Linturi’s complaints when he recommended that the senator to be charged with forgery, among other charges over a property dispute pitting him against Kitany.
The Judge directed the DCI to consider Linturi's complaint and resubmit the file to the DPP within 90 days.
Linturi said his planned arrest was meant to assist Ms Kitany in the fight over multi-million properties.
The legislator said the dispute, which relates to financial securities and credit facilities as well as control of some companies, was the subject of ongoing commercial, family and civil cases pending in court.
In May, Linturi obtained an order stopping his arrest over claims that he forged signatures to secure loans of Sh530 million using properties belonging to Kitany.
He said he was served with yet another letter from the police in August, indicating that he would be charged with attempted rape and an indecent act. According to the legislator, the alleged criminal offences have never been disclosed to him or the court, yet he allegedly committed the offence in January this year.
“I have been supplied with a letter dated 05.05.2021 authored by the 2nd Respondent (DCI) to the Minister showing that the 2nd Respondent’s agents have prepared yet another file and are ready to arrest, charge and prosecute me with alleged criminal offences of attempted rape and indecent act with an adult which offences I am alleged to have committed on 29.01.2021,” he said.
His lawyer Charles Mwongela said submitted that the move was meant to give his estranged wife undue advantage in the ongoing civil and commercial cases.
At the centre of the commercial and forgery dispute is Atticon Limited, a firm that Mr Linturi fully owned before ceding 50 percent shares to Baron Estates Ltd, which is associated with his estranged wife.
The ceding of ownership was in exchange for Baron Estates guaranteeing a Sh50 million loan that Mr Linturi intended to borrow from a local bank.
The Senator is accused of fraudulently kicking out Baron Estates from ownership of Atticon and further increasing the loan secured using the Baron’s property to Sh530 million without its consent.
