Govt to pay former MP Harun Mwau Sh8 million for illegal seizure of his vehicle
The Attorney General and the National Police Service Commission have been ordered to pay former Kilome Member of Parliament Harun Mwau Sh8 million for illegally holding his car for years.
High Court Judge Asenath Ongeri said the high-end vehicle had been held illegally by police officers at Central Police Station in Nairobi, which saw the former lawmaker suffer losses.
“I find that the police did not have a reason to detain his vehicle since it was not involved in commission of any crime as prescribed by Section 26 of the Criminal Procedure Code,” the judge ruled.
She further said the police had violated his rights to property by detaining the Range Rover House which at the time cost Sh8 million.
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The Judge further said when the vehicle was eventually released to the former lawmaker it was not in the same condition as it was taken there.
She said the vehicle had been wasted, vandalized and eaten away by the elements of weather.
The vehicle was seized by the police in 2011 following a shooting incident that took place along City Hall Way.
Mr Mwau, in court documents, said on June 23, 2011, at 10pm, his driver was driving along City Hall Way when the vehicle was shot at twice by unknown people who were in a getaway vehicle.
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The incident took place just a few meters from the Garden Square entrance and the driver left it there before informing Mr Mwau about it.
Police officers and Directorate of Criminal Investigations officers attached to the Central Police Station arrived at the scene and towed the vehicle away.
Three days later, Mr Mwau, alongside his driver, went to the police station to pick the vehicle but the police refused to hand it over to him.
Mr Mwau said the officers at the station told him that they had been instructed by their superiors not to release the vehicle.
At the time, according to Mr Mwau, the vehicle had everything intact, apart from two bullet holes.
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