Baringo County Health CEC Dr Gideon Kibet Toromo was arraigned at the Kabarnet Law Courts on Thursday, December 17, with charges of threatening to kill the county's payroll manager.
The medic denied the charges and was set free on a Ksh 70,000 bond and Ksh 50,000 cash bail.
During the open-air hearing, the court was informed that the CEC on November 25, 2020, Toromo uttered the words, "Ayabei leo nitakumaliza," to County Payroll Manager Francis Kibinei Ayabei at the county headquarters. The pronouncements were perceived as a threat to murder his colleague.
The county medic was also charged with a second count of assault as per section 251 of the penal code.
Toromo is alleged to suffer from a psychiatric disorder referred to as paranoid schizophrenia, thus resulting in his instances of aggressive behaviour.
On October 8, 2013, Toromo was charged with shooting and killing a secondary school tutor with a poisoned arrow as reported by Nation.
He was, however, set free after a letter from then Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko, dated August 6, 2013, directing the court to call off proceedings.
The CEC is reported to have dropped out of medical school in Germany in 1998. He is alleged to have suffered his first incident of mental illness while pursuing advanced studies.
The publication reported that Toromo had claimed that there had been an attempt to poison him, thus returned home and joined the civil service s a medical doctor.
The letter presented before the court then indicated that the CEC had suffered several instances of depression resulting in aggressive conduct, and in four occasions, he was admitted to hospital.
The November 25, 2020 incident involving the CEC comes at the back of a time when the country faces a serious health crisis following a strike by medical practitioners across the country.
