Police on Tuesday, November 5, launched a manhunt for the Kitui East MP after the High Court in Kitui issued a warrant of arrest for the legislator for failing to pay a debt.
Nimrod Mbithuka Mbai was accused of failing to clear a Ksh2.2 million debt he owed to the Nyamu and Nyamu Advocates that represented him in an election petition that he won.
A report by the Daily Nation on Wednesday ndicated that the officer commanding Nairobi’s Central Police Station was ordered to arrest Mbai and deliver him to the Kitui court.
“These are to command you to arrest the said Nimrod Mbithuka Mbai and unless he shall pay to you the sum of Ksh2, 212, 670.40 as noted in the margin together with executing officers expenses and fees, if only, to bring the said judgment-debtor before the court with all convenient speed,” reads the decree dated October 17, 2019.
The court had issued a decree of payment against the legislator which he had been reportedly served with but he failed to settle the sum and is also said to have ignored subsequent orders for him to appear in court prompting the issuance of the arrest warrant.
If found guilty, he risks six months committal to civil jail for failure to settle the debt.
The legal firm had in documents filed in court pleaded with the High Court to issue an arrest warrant against Mbai noting that despite representing him successfully he has refused to settle the legal fees.
The law firm further argued that the legislator's actions had caused it losses since they had invested long man-hours and resources to represent him.
The MP’s political opponent Millitonic Mwendwa 'Kitute' had filed the election petition after he came second in the 2017 general election.
Mbai, a former administration policemen won on a Jubilee ticket with 14,256 votes against Kitute’s 10,899.
Prior to his election, he served as a bodyguard to former Minority Leader and Kitui west MP the late Francis Nyenze and Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua.
