A COUNCILLOR who fled a Kenyan jail after being charged with fraud is convinced he can return to the country to become its president within three years.

Daniel Munyambu, who represents Vange, says he has become so high-profile in his native country, after becoming one of Kenya's first British local politicians in 2011, he could win the next general election in 2017.

While he was a sitting councillor in March 2012, he returned to Kenya where he was arrested, but jumped bail and fled for 20 hours across Africa before returning to Basildon.

He fought to clear his name against fraud charges which he claims were fabricated and politically- motivated due to his rising status back home.

He said: “In 2007, for the national election in Kenya, I was headhunted by ministers from the Party of National Union to campaign for them. They paid my flights and everything. When I became a councillor in England I became more well-known and that is why the charges were cooked up.”

Despite spending £6,700 on lawyers’ fees, he has been unable to lift the three fraud charges in connection with his former car export company Clickett Traders, registered to his home address in Clickett End, Basildon.

He remains suspended from the Labour Party as a result.

Yet he is convinced by 2017 he will have lifted the cloud and be able to return to form a new political party and oust current president Uhuru Kenyatta.

He said: “This has been something I’ve been planning for almost 20 years. I have a manifesto and I revise it every day. It is not a dream, but a plan.”

He said he would bring an end to corruption and a system which has meant thousands of Kenyans have been unable to return home for political reasons.

Mr Munyambu, who plans to form his own party in Kenya, moved to the UK to join his wife in Basildon before becoming a Labour activist.

He added: “I had no plans to join British politics, but when I came here I joined Labour and found we share the same politics and they gave me the chance so I went for it.”

LABOUR: He hasn’t told us of his plan Allegations of fraud over luxury car deal DANIEL Munyambu is accused of defrauding a client of his former car export firm Clickett Traders in November 2008.

It is alleged Kenyan politician and businessman Harun Ole Lempaka paid him £15,800 up front for a Land Cruiser to be exported while Mr Munyambu was in Basildon.

However, it is alleged Mr Munyambu took the money and did not export the vehicle.

Mr Munyambu claims the customer changed his mind and he sold it, deducting his expenses and offered to refund £6,000, but he refused.

He was due to stand trial after his arrest, but is now fighting the charges from the UK after skipping bail.

Clickett Traders was dissolved in 2010 after failing to file any accounts to Companies House, but Mr Munyambu opened a new company of the same name in April this year.

A LEADING Labour councillor has said Daniel Munyambu has told no one in the party of his presidential bid.

Nigel Smith, Basildon deputy group leader, said: “He’s not short of ambition, but the people of Vange would rather hope he would be putting them first and it would have been nice if he’d told us.

“He works as a Labour councillor and does what he was elected to do. I think he is a hardworking councillor and am surprised if he is expressing these ambitions.”

Mr Munyambu said he would stand to be re-elected for Vange last year and his high hopes had not impacted his case work.

He said: “I am contacted by people out of my ward because I get things done.”

He would not comment when asked if he would have to step