Image: The-Star
Margret Nyakang'o, the embattled Controller of Budget, was arrested in Nairobi on Monday night and then driven to Mombasa, according to details that have surfaced.
The CoB was charged with four charges, including operating a Sacco without a licence and forgery, when he was arraigned in a Mombasa court on Tuesday.
Nyakang'o was apprehended at her Nairobi house in Karen before being brought before a judge by police who had followed her from a Karen members club.
After playing golf, she and her husband David Nyakang'o were entering her home when the police arrived at her gate in an unmarked car.
On Wednesday, Nyakang'o opened up about her contentious arrest and following arraignment in Mombasa in a candid interview with Citizen TV.
Nyakang'o described how the officers' supposed statement-taking procedure turned into a nightlong car drive to Mombasa.
It also turned out that Nyakang'o had been on leave and that, contrary to what had been previously reported, she had not been detained in Mombasa while attending a formal event.
"I had been on leave since December 1. We returned home in Karen on Monday and realised there was a vehicle following us. The occupants told me that they wanted me to take a statement from me at the Central Bank of Kenya in the Central Business District," she told Citizen TV on the phone.
Nyakang'o claims that the cops insisted on accompanying her to the CBK headquarters that evening rather than taking her statement from her home office.
"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 offices but they insisted 'No we go to town," she claimed.
Nyakang'o, who was freed on a Sh500,000 cash bond after denying the four allegations on Tuesday, claimed she was not permitted to write a statement when they arrived at the CBK offices in the CBD.
"They took me to the CBK office but I was not given any papers to write. They then told me that they were under instructions to take me to Mombasa,'' she alleged.
Nyakang'o begged the police at this time to let her husband buy her some food because she was starving and hadn't eaten anything.
"They allowed my husband to get me some food, which he did and even brought some for the officers," Nyakang'o narrated.
Then, as Nyakango's spouse and his wife were travelling to Mombasa for the night, the officers urged him to return home.
She was transported to the CBK offices at 7:30 am on Tuesday morning after they arrived in Mombasa, where she was given to the local DCI personnel.
"I was processed and taken to court," she said.
Nyakang'o claims that her troubles began with a SACCO membership that she renounced as soon as she was named budget controller, leaving her to question just who is targeting her.
She disclosed that she received a call in 2019 from a Sacco who was looking for a board member.
"I went to see someone in Nairobi who told me that they wanted to expand the board and bring experts on board. He told me that for me to join the board, I needed to sign up as a member first," Nyakang'o explained.
"I filled the forms and she told me that if I could save up to Sh100,000 by the time of the AGM, I would join the board."
The Controller of Budget stated that she went to the Sacco and wanted to leave because she had obtained employment, following her successful screening as the nation's CoB.
"I converted my savings into two plots, although I added some money," she said.
She subsequently discovered that, despite not having been duly elected or ratified at the AGM, she had been named as a board member of the Sacco.
Nyakang'o stated that she informed the investigators that she had been suggested for a board position but that it had never been verified at the AGM during the Sacco investigations.
"The investigators appeared satisfied with my explanation then," she said wondering who was now pursuing her.
On December 13, the CoB's case would be heard in Mombasa, notwithstanding the leaders' ongoing disagreements on her apprehension and subsequent charging.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga stated on Tuesday that ODM and Kenyans were not surprised by Nyakang'o's arrest, which was largely anticipated.
He claimed that the CoB's determination to maintain professionalism and integrity has allowed her to get to where she is now.
"It was only a matter of when or not Nyakang'o was going to be sent packing on frivolous and trumped-up charges to create room for a user-friendly holder of the office," Raila claimed.
"As a party, we stand with Nyakang'o and will offer whatever help we can in the interest of the war against corruption in the country. This struggle will be nasty and long but it is one Kenyans cannot afford to lose," the ODM leader said.
"We will lead that struggle from the front."
The accusations brought against her and her co-accused include forgery and uttering a false document in violation of Section 353 of the Penal Code, operating a Sacco without a licence in violation of Section 24 as read with Section 66 of the Sacco Societies Act, 2008, and conspiracy to defraud.
In a letter to the DCI on November 30, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions accepted the charges.
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