Court releases car dealer Khalif Kairo on Sh2 million cash bail

The court has released popular car dealer Joseph Kairu Wambui alias Khalif Kairo on a cash bail of Sh2 million in cases where he was charged with cheating clients after failing to deliver cars they paid for.

Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina of the Milimani law courts said the nature of the charges against the accused person is a misdemeanour.

Onyina said the penalty for the offence is punishable by three years and he considered the defence's averments that Khalif owns a business empire worth Sh1 billion which the prosecution did not dispute.

Onyina also noted that Khalif's travel details which the prosecution intended to use to prove he is likely to abscond trial was air travelling ticket of January 10, 2025.

The travel ticket indicated he was to travel on January 13 and return on January 20 while the case he is charged with was reported on January 11 therefore he could not have intended to evade trial.

"In the circumstances, I am unable to see a compelling reason why the accused person should not be granted bail or bond because based on the foregoing, I am not convinced the accused person is a flight risk," Onyina ruled.

Onyina said the particulars of the offence which are subject to proof include cheating which is punishable by a jail term of three years.

He granted Khalif an alternative of depositing a bond of a similar amount and ordered him to deposit his passport with the court administrator.

The suspect is charged with fraud in relation to deals where he failed to deliver motor vehicles to clients after they made payments to his company.

Khalif was charged with two counts of cheating contrary to section 315 of the Penal Code.

In one of the charges, Khalif is accused of inducing Dona Ayalo Okoth to transfer Sh2,984,998 into Kai and Karo Limited's bank account by falsely pretending that he would purchase a Subaru Outback for her.

He is said to have received the payments on July 29, 2024, at an unknown location in Kenya by means of fraudulent tricks.

In the count, the businessman is accused of receiving Sh2,145,150 from Jeff Kyule which the complainant was paying for the importation of a motor vehicle Honda Vezel from Japan.

Kyule made the payments on diverse dates between July 10 and 29, 2024 at Westlands in Nairobi and the prosecution says Khalif never delivered the vehicle after the payments were made.

His lead lawyer Danstan Omari claimed that dealers out to bring Khalif down are bankrolling the case against him and vowed to petition the Director of Public Prosecutions to drop the charges to allow civil proceedings.