BY NT CORRESPONDENT.
A licencing and registration department deputy director at NTSA has petitioned the High Court seeking to set aside orders detaining him for 30 days to enable police conclude the probe over Dusit hotel terror attack links.
In a certificate of urgency filed by Cosmas Ngeso , he urges the court to release him on reasonable bail or bond terms pending investigations as his continued detention is unconstitutional.
“The orders detaining me are therefore unconstitutional and should therefore be set aside, stayed, reviewed or varied,” says the deputy.
Ngeso was arrested alongside his Department’s director Jacqueline Githinji and four other officials in connection with the Dusit Hotel terror attack which occurred on 15th and 16th January.
They are suspected to be involved in fraudulent issuance of motor vehicle number plates.
This is after it was discovered that the number plate of the vehicles used by the Dusit attackers matched that of another vehicle found in Kitengela, Kajiado County.
Through his lawyer, Ngeso, a father of four states that under section 6 of the NTSA Act, the management powers of the Authority are vested in a Board while implementation of the policies relating to road transport and safety is a responsibility of the management of NTSA headed by the Chief Executive Officer.
According to him, there is no justification whatsoever for arresting him, let alone detaining him, since the Anti-Terror police has no evidence or any other material linking him to the issuance of two registration plates with respect to one registration number.
He further states in his affidavit that no evidence was presented by Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) at the magistrates court touching on which of the two vehicles had a fake number (There is a possibility that the vehicle used by the attackers could be the one with a genuine plate).
It is also his argument that as a deputy, he reports to the director in charge of Registration and Licensing who in turn returns to the Chief Executive Officer and therefore cannot be personally and criminally liable for alleged failures and or weaknesses of NTSA.
According to the court documents, under section 24 of the NTSA Act, the applicant is immune from criminal and civil liability for actions or omissions arising by virtue only of his employment.
“My role does not involve actual execution of the various tasks entailed by the aforesaid rules and procedures, which tasks are performed by junior officers who are personally responsible for ensuring that the rules and procedures are meticulously followed,” says Ngeso.
He also argues that it is the junior officers who should be personally held accountable whenever they fail to strictly follow the said rules and procedures.
It was alleged that the applicant was only arrested because “the matter falls under his docket and accordingly, he “could” be implicated therein”.
However, Ngeso has refuted the allegations that the matter falls in his docket on grounds that he has no role whatsoever in the processing and or issuance of number plates or duplicate plates.
