The hearing of a highway robbery case involving goods worth Sh70 million failed to proceed on Wednesday after one of the bonded suspects was absent in court.
The prosecution told the court that one of suspects; Solomon Rugut and his lawyer Olale Cheche were absent before court, and therefore prayed for adjournment and arrest warrant issued.
The prosecution also applied that they will be amending the charge sheet again after the investigating officer said one suspect has been arrested thus bringing the total number of suspects to 14.
The case has far seen 13 suspects arraigned in court including 70-year-old Mary Wanjiru, her daughter-in-law who were allegedly found with one cartoon containing mobile phones at their home in Gatundu alongside a Nakuru-based traffic police officer.
The 13, jointly were charged after they were alleged to have used an offensive weapon to rob Titus Kiplagat of a motor vehicle valued at Sh9 million on July, 15, at Salgaa in Nakuru.
On July 28, a traffic officer, Peter Gachie was arrested and charged in court after he was linked to the same highway theft which occurred at Salgaa area.
According to police, the suspects with others all in traffic police uniform at 6.45pm stopped the lorry, accused the complainant of speeding before ordering the occupants into another car and drove them off to an unknown place where the cargo was offloaded into another vehicle.
Some of the assorted goods worth Sh400,000 were recovered at Syokimau in Nairobi and suspects charged, while a lorry carrying mobile phones was also recovered.
Lawyer Steve Kabita who is watching a brief on behalf of the complainants, said the idea of delaying the case is denying justice to the Golden Gate Cargo Service Company Ltd since some of their properties have been lost and some destroyed.
He also prayed that the court issues an arrest warrant to the suspect.
Principle Magistrate Wakumile Ndururu issued an arrest warrant to Rugut and notice to his lawyer.
The case will be mentioned on November 18.