Mumias East MP Peter Salasya is wanted by police for allegedly threatening to kill a Kakamega magistrate.
The MP is said to have confronted and threatened Resident Magistrate Gladys Kiama outside court on Monday.
This was after she ordered him to pay a lawyer Sh500,000 in a small claims case. Police say the MP has switched off his mobile phones and gone into hiding.
They have asked him to surrender and record a statement. His aides have also claimed not to know his whereabouts.
Magistrate Kiama reported the incident to Kakamega Police Station on Monday afternoon. She said the MP had threatened to kill her before fleeing.
She had just made a ruling dismissing Salasya’s counterclaim for payment of the debt. The court found that the MP had borrowed Sh500,000 from a Kakamega-based businessman Robert Lutta in December 2022.
Lutta had lent the money to Salasya after he won the Mumias East parliamentary seat in the August 2022 elections. He expected the MP to repay the loan in two months, but he failed to do so despite frequent reminders.
Lutta sued the MP through lawyer Edwin Wafula on 23 October 2023. He attached bank transfer details to prove the transaction.
He also said he was prepared to use the Civil Procedure Act to send the MP to civil prison if he continued to default on the debt. The court ordered the MP to pay Lutta the Sh500,000 plus interest and court costs.
The case lasted less than two months. Efforts to reach the MP for comment were unsuccessful.
