The Kakamega Small Claims Court (SCC) has paved the way for businessman Robert Lutta to auction Mumias East MP Peter Salasya’s Land Cruiser after rejecting the MP’s application to halt the process.
At the same time, the court’s adjudicator, Caroline Cheruiyot, ordered the firebrand MP to pay the businessman Kes.10,000 as litigation costs for pursuing the MP’s application, which was filed under a certificate of urgency to block the auction.
Cheruiyot observed that the controversiallawmaker, who presented one of his payslips indicating earnings of Kes.3,222, was merely abusing the court process despite having the means to pay the Kes.500,000 plus interest owed to Lutta, as ruled by the court in November last year.
“It is the court’s finding that the auction decree was extracted on January 18 and Salasya has since not paid any sums as a sign of good faith despite his proposal to settle the same in monthly installments of Kes.50,000,” said Cheruiyot.
Salasya approached the court seeking to settle the outstanding debt to Lutta in small installments of Kes.50,000, a proposal which Lutta, represented by his lawyer, Edwin Wafula, rejected.
Lutta countered, stating that despite having the means to promptly clear the debt, Salasya had chosen a prolonged payment plan, indicating a disregard for the court process. He argued that such tactics not only revealed a lack of integrity on the part of the politician but also underscored a larger issue of abuse of power and privilege within the political domain.
“The court finds the said proposed amount (Kes.50,000) would take close to one year to settle which is neither fair nor reasonable. Further, considering other factors such as the conduct of Salasya as stated by Lutta and Salasya’s financial position and status, the court finds that he is undeserving of the prayers sought,” Cheruiyot stated.
“The court finds that the notice motion dated 28/03/2024 is not merited and the same is hereby dismissed with costs of Kes.10,000 to the Respondent. The interim orders of stay of execution are hereby vacated,” she ruled.
