The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) should be held accountable for allowing Steve Mbogo to register a Ranger Rover bearing a Probox number plate, the controversial businessman has said.
While impounding the high-end SUV last week, the DCI said the former Starehe parliamentary aspirant had fraudulently obtained the registration plate in a bid to evade paying excise duty.
In his defense, however, Steve Mbogo says he was unaware that the importation tax of his Range Rover of registration plate KCL 830A wasn’t paid. He says he bought the vehicle from a car dealer, who had already gone through all the procedures to have the registration approved by the transport authority NTSA.
“When you go to a bazaar and buy a vehicle that has its registration plate numbers ready, the only other thing you will be expected to do is register it on the NTSA portal, and if it is legitimate, then there won’t be any issues registering the vehicle. I did not experience any troubles registering the car. So, if there were issues with its registration plate, NTSA should have informed me that there was another vehicle, which legitimately owned the registration plate number. That did not happen,” Mbogo said.
“If anything, I have been driving this vehicle for two years now, and if the [registration and security] systems were working well, then the discrepancy should have been settled a long time ago,” he added.
Mr Mbogo is expected to report to the DCI headquarters today, Monday 8, for interrogation.
The embattled governor is also embroiled in another case following the cancellation of his firearm certificate in February.
Mbogo moved to the High Court on March 1 on a certificate of urgency to have his four guns and fire certificate returned, arguing that his life is in danger.
He had been summoned for vetting by the Firearms Licensing Board after he was spotted at the 14 Riverside Drive terror attack scene brandishing a shotgun.
