Former Homa Bay County Chief Officer for Roads and the current Roads Inspector were on Tuesday arraigned before a Homa Bay court charged with stealing transportation containers worth Sh700, 000.
The former Chief Officer, Chris Agong’ and Inspector John Otieno appeared before Senior Principal Magistrate Thomas Obutu.
The duo was accused of stealing the property when they were serving in the public service contrary to section 280 of the penal code.
The court heard that on diverse dates between May 5, 2017 and April 3, 2018, the two who were employed in the public service jointly stole two containers valued at Sh.700, 000 in Homa Bay Township.
The court was told that the property which belongs to an organization called Ocean Freight Limited came into their possession by virtue of their employment. The accused persons denied the offence.
The Homa Bay Senior Principal Magistrate, Thomas Obutu released them on a bond of Sh.500, 000 with a surety of a similar amount each. Alternatively, they were given a cash bail of Sh.200, 000.
The case will be mentioned on September 10, 2019 ahead of hearing on October 22, 2019.
The two were arrested and detained at Homa Bay police station on Monday evening.
Their arrests came following investigations which were conducted over loss of the containers.
The containers were used for transporting road construction implements from Mombasa to Homa Bay. But the containers got lost mysteriously after delivery of the goods.
The Homa Bay County Secretary, Isaiah Ogwe had earlier confirmed that the containers delivered the goods to the County. This prompted police to undertake investigations which connected the two with the incident.
The Homa Bay County Police Commander, Esther Seroney said their investigations revealed that the two were answerable to loss of the equipment.
Their arrests came after the Directorate of Criminal Investigations arrested three other suspects and charged them in Mombasa.
By Davis Langat/ Godwine Ochieng
