Salasya risks six-month jail term over Sh500,000 debt

Mumias East MP Peter Kalerwa Salasya. [File, Standard]

The Kakamega Small Claims Court (SCC) has ordered Mumias East MP Peter Kalerwa Salasya to appear on August 1, 2024, to explain why he should not be arrested and committed to civil jail for six months for failure to pay a debt.

Kakamega SCC adjudicator Carolyne Cheriuiyot directed the MP to “appear in person or through his advocate to address your failure to pay businessman Robert Lutta a sum of Sh565,712.” Salasya borrowed the money from Lutta but failed to repay it.

The orders were issued following an application by the businessman seeking to change the mode of execution of the decree.

This came after National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang'ula filed an objection in court, stating that the car Lutta intended to auction to recover the money was co-owned by the National Assembly.

The businessman said that he could not attach Salasya's salary, after he declared in court that his net pay was Sh3,222 monthly. As a result, Lutta opted for the arrest and detention of the MP in civil jail until the debt is settled.

On November 27, 2023, the SCC ordered Salasya to pay the businessman Sh500,000 plus interest, dismissing his counterclaim as inadequate, implausible, and dissuasive.

"The counterclaim by the respondent (Salasya) was inconsistent. He first claimed that he had personally loaned the claimant (Lutta) Sh1 million, which Lutta was repaying, only to change his story during the hearing, saying that he loaned the money through a proxy," reads the judgment in part.

"The proxy in question, one Bernard Kemba, could not even identify the claimant (Lutta) during an identification parade carried out in court."

The court noted that the businessman had bank transfer proof to back his claim that he loaned Salasya Sh500,000, which he refused to repay.

In contrast, the MP lacked binding evidence to show that he had loaned Lutta the alleged Sh1 million.

Lutta sued the MP through lawyer Edwin Wafula on October 23, 2023, alleging that he innocently loaned Salasya the amount, hoping for a refund within two months, but he has since become elusive.

"Being a friend for so many years, I accepted to advance him the amount on December 13 last year (2022)," Lutta says in his court papers.

"On the material day, I proceeded to the Kenya Commercial Bank - Mumias Branch, where I made a direct transfer of the Sh500,000 to the personal account of the MP, who promised to refund the amount within two months from the date of the transaction."

Lutta regretted that the MP, had failed to refund the amount despite frequent reminders.