Controversial businessman Paul Kobia was yesterday arrested and booked at Kilimani Police Station overnight in connection to abduction and assault of a Congolese national over a sh40million dispute.
Kobia was picked during Wednesday night police raid at his Kindaruma home in Kilimani.
“He will be arraigned in court today to face abduction, assault among other charges.” Nairobi police boss Japheth Koome said.
Kobia is accused of kidnapping and beating up Bachard Londole who is admitted at Nairobi Women’s Hospital.
Police are seeking to have him detained to complete investigations.
Kobia has had previous controversial incidences that saw his arrest.
In 2014, police disarmed Kobia his browning Pistol M5353 serial number 480921after he shot dead Wanjohi Mugwanja aged 31 years to the head after he in company of two others snatched his Samsung Galaxy Note III valued at Sh74, 000 along Limuru Road at 7.45 pm.
At the time, he was driving a black Audi, registration number KBS545R.
In 2010, November 2, Kobia alias Paul Ilunga Ngoei, the man named in the 392 page UN report over the Democratic Republic of Congo gold smuggling was apprehended and charged with pretending to sell 825kg of gold and obtaining Sh17.4 million ($200,000) at current exchange rate) from a South African Dennis Ray Schmelzenbach.
The UN report released in 2012 linked him to a gold con game and a warehouse at JKIA, which he allegedly used to dupe his victims. The 392-page report also claimed the syndicate ran a gold refinery in Nairobi. Kobia denied all the allegations.
Kabila insisted some of the loot had been freighted from Nairobi to Dubai and South Africa but part of it was in a warehouse in Embakasi. In 2011, President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) visited Kenya for crisis talks with retired President Mwai Kibaki over alleged smuggling of 2.5 tonnes of gold worth at least Sh8 billion.
The visit almost sparked a diplomatic row between Kenya and DRC. Kobia was among those profiled by the Unite nations and Kenyan investigators allegedly linked to the international smuggling syndicate of illicit trade of precious metals.
In March 2011, Kenyan government and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) established a joint team to investigate alleged trade in illegal gold. However, Kobia has since denied any involvement in illicit trade attributing the claims to his business rivals.
