Isiolo Speaker Roba arrested in Nairobi over withheld county car
Embattled Isiolo County Assembly Speaker Mohamed Roba was Tuesday arrested in Nairobi for withholding a government car. He was also detained for arson, assault and malicious damage to property.
He was picked up by police picked by DCI along Thika Road and detained at Ruaraka Police Station, where he was held until morning.
He was later moved to Mavoko Law Court where he was expected to face charges. But he produced a court order claiming a court had stopped his arrest and prosecution.
The office of Director of Public Prosecutions had given consent for his prosecution following a probe.
A letter by a prosecution counsel Nyaroita Nyokabi dated August 1 ordered he be charged with arson, malicious damage to property, assault of a police officer and assault causing bodily harm.
His supporters jammed the court on learning he had been arrested amid push for his release.
The probe stems to an incident where police tried to recover county cars from him prompting drama.
There were chaos at his residence in July when a car was burnt as police tried to repossess three cars belonging to the County Government.
A team of police officers had on July 22 afternoon visited the home of Roba with an intention of taking away the cars belonging to the local county.
Roba was ousted as the Speaker of the county but has been holding on to some of the property belonging to the devolved unit.
Eight police officers went to the home seeking to take away a Toyota Land Cruiser VXL, which had been fitted with what they termed as an unauthorized number plate and two other four-wheel drive ones.
They were parked in the basement of the residence.
The team managed to gain entry to the basement in order to recover the said vehicles and while in the process of the recovery, Roba came with a group of rowdy youths and started harassing officers demanding them to vacate his compound.
The rowdy youths turned violent and began pelting officers with stones.
The team requested for reinforcement while withdrawing.
One police officer was forced to fire one round in the air to scare away the rowdy youths as they managed to escape the scene, police said.
More reinforcement team arrived and they went back to the scene when they realized one breakdown they were using in the mission had been set on fire and extensively damaged.
In the process, four police officers and one civilian, driver to the recovery vehicle were injured.
One of the government vehicles was damaged in the drama, police said.
The vehicles were removed from the home amid police investigations.
Roba has been on a warpath since his removal.
The High Court extended orders stopping the removal of the recently gazetted Speaker, Abdullahi Jaldesa Banticha.
Justice Hellen Wasilwa set the mention for the case on September 22, 2025.
The judge had stopped the degazettment of Banticha.