After spending a few hours at the Milimani Law Courts police station basement, former National Bank of Kenya Chief Executive Officer Munir Ahmed was on Friday afternoon released on bond.
Munir, who was arrested on Thursday night at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as he allegedly tried to leave the country, was not arraigned in court after the prosecution directed police to complete investigations before submitting the file to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Addressing the press outside the court, his lawyer Paul Muite said he would take legal action against Banking Fraud Investigation Unit (BFIU) for harassing his client.
“BFIU boss Boniface Iregi violated Chapter Six of the Constitution, we will not take this lightly. We are going to take legal action on the matter,” said Muite.
He said Munir had informed the police that he was to go on holiday with his family and was given back his documents to facilitate his travel.
He said the police returned his passport and then pretended he was running away so that they can arrest him.
“The police have no charges against him. When they brought him to Milimani, State Prosecutor Daniel Karuri directed they complete the investigation and hand over the file to the Director of Public Prosecutions,” added Muite.
On Thursday, Munir spent the night at Kileleshwa police station cells after he was arrested at the JKIA en route to Dubai. Detectives said they were tipped of what they termed as “risk flight attempt” by Munir. NBK board summarily dismissed Munir over alleged financial impropriety and graft.
According to police sources, Munir had said he was visiting his family in Dubai.
Earlier, he had his passport seized but it was controversially returned to him even before being taken to court. In April this year, Munir was fired alongside chief finance officer Chris Kisire and executive director in charge of corporate and institutional banking Boniface Biko.
They were accused of irregular disbursement of loans which caused the bank’s non-performing debts to shoot up, sinking the lender into a Sh1.2 billion net loss in 2015.