Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and other political leaders visit Juja MP George Koimburi at Karen Hospital on May 26, 2025.
Associates of Juja MP George Koimburi, whose family says he was abducted on Sunday and dumped in a coffee plantation on Monday morning, have retraced his troubles to last Friday.
The MP was issuing bursaries at Gachororo Primary School last Friday when, according to his aides, he abruptly escaped on a motorcycle after complaining he was being accosted by people believed to be security officers.
Dramatic escape
His handlers then told reporters in Juja that the government should explain why he was being hounded, prompting him to evade imminent arrest on a motorcycle although they did not offer evidence of this dramatic escape.
Mr Koimburi would then re-emerge on Sunday at Full Gospel Church in Mugutha from where his family say he was abducted by people posing as police officers. They bundled him into a waiting vehicle and sped off.
A video emerged online of a few people outside the church pleading with onlookers to intervene to chase away occupants of vehicle involved in the reported abduction. The video, however, does not show the moment Mr Koimburi was arrested and bundled in the vehicle, a Subaru model.
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and other political leaders visit Juja MP George Koimburi at Karen Hospital on May 26, 2025.
On Monday morning, the MP was reportedly found unconscious in Kibichoi, Githunguri sub-county, after disappearing for hours as the mystery deepened after police claimed he had faked his own abduction to preempt an impending arrest.
However, authorities, too, never provided evidence to back the claims the abduction was faked.
On Monday, Ms Ann Koimburi, the MP’s wife told Daily Nation through the legislator’s Personal Assistant David Gatana that Mr Koimburi was found unconscious inside a coffee plantation by a boda boda rider.
Together with the help of good Samaritans, they telephoned his wife who rushed him to Karen Hospital where he is undergoing treatment.
“He has told us he was assaulted by police. He is struggling to speak and he is in pain,’’ Mr Gatana told Daily Nation. But he declined to comment on whether they have recorded a statement with police.
Speaking at the hospital after visiting the MP, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said Mr Koimburi was badly beaten and in a very serious condition.
“He was tortured by professionals. He has lost his voice and the doctors are working round the clock to restore his vocal cords,” Mr Gachagua said.
“Some chemicals were administered through inhalation; the doctors have told us,” he claimed, adding, “he is out of danger. They have taken blood and urine samples to private labs for tests.”
But police spokesman Michael Muchiri told Daily Nation that the government was not involved in the abduction of Mr Koimburi, insisting if he was wanted, they would have summoned him.
“We have evaluated the whole situation since Friday when Mr Koimburi claimed he was arrested by our officers and subsequently on Sunday when he claimed again that he had been arrested. In all the situations, Mr Koimburi is trying to whip up emotions among his supporters because of his imminent arrest over land fraud case he is actively involved in Juja and the ongoing case where he is alleged to have faked academic certificates and presented them as genuine when he was vying for the elective seat in Juja,’’ Mr Muchiri claimed.
Mr Koimburi was first elected Juja MP in a by-election in 2021 on the People’s Empowerment Party then associated with the then Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria, who at the time was allied to then Deputy President William Ruto who was locked in a power struggle with President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Forged certificate
He was re-elected in 2022 on a United Democratic Party ticket but has since fallen out with the ruling party’s leadership for his associated with Mr Gachagua who was impeached by Parliament last October and removed from office as Deputy President.
On February 19, Mr Koimburi was charged with forging academic certificates before Kiambu Law Courts.
He had been arrested outside one of his residences in Kiambu, driven to DCI headquarters for interrogation and later detained at Kamukunji Police Station.
At the time, initial reports suggested that his arrest was in relation to his claims a week earlier that the government had spent close to Sh13 billion in campaigns for opposition chief Raila Odinga in his failed bid to become African Union Commission boss.
The prosecution team led by assistant Director of Public Prosecution Everlyn Onunga told Kiambu senior Principal Magistrate Mwanamkuu Mwakwambirwa Mr Koimburi had forged a Kenya National Examination Council’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam certificate in 1994.
Another count alleged Mr Koimburi had forged a university project from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) between September 2011 and April 2012.
Prosecutors said the contested project had been listed as African Universities Accession Project yet Mr Koimburu, the court was told, claims the document was issued by JKUAT.
Mr Koimburi also faced a third county accused of forging a JKUAT academic excellence certificate from the Department of School of Human Resource Development purporting that it had been issued by the university between September 2011 and April 2012.
The MP has pleaded not guilty.
Last year, Mr Koimburi angered the government by claiming MPs had been bribed Sh2 million each to vote in favour of the Finance Bill, 2024, which proposed new taxes. President Ruto would later withdraw the Bill after public riots.
Mr Koimburi has claimed all the charges he is facing are a political witch-hunt because of his criticism of the government.
