Pubdate: Fri, 14 May 2004
Source: East African Standard, The (Kenya)
Copyright: 2004 The East African Standard
Contact:  http://www.eastandard.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1743
Author: Athman Amran

WITNESS: JUDGE WAS IN DRUGS RING

NAIROBI

Suspended judge Philip Waki was part of a syndicate run by late drug
baron Ibrahim Akasha, a witness told a tribunal investigating the
conduct of the judge yesterday.

Mr Mohamed Ghani Taib, who confessed he had been escorting Akasha's
drug convoys from several off-loading sea points said: "Even Waki was
in our group".

He claimed that in also Akasha's payroll were former police
commissioner Edwin Nyaseda, Akasha's wives and children and other
close associates.

Taib claimed that Waki handled the legal side of the syndicate while
he, Nyaseda and other police officers in Mombasa escorted drugs to
different destinations within the Coast Province. Nyaseda was then
Coast Provincial CID boss.

Within the syndicate were brokers and people who dealt with packing
and selling of the drugs.

This was not the first time Nyaseda has been mentioned at the
tribunal, prompting tribunal chairman retired Appeal Court judge
Akilano Akiwumi to order that he be served with adverse notice.

"Each one had their job to perform," Taib, who is serving a
15-year-sentence at the Kamiti Maximum Prison said. He has appealed
against his conviction.

The witness, who was being cross-examined by Waki's lawyer George
Oraro, said he had read of the tribunal while in prison and that he
had decided to testify not to help himself with his appeal but to
"speak out the truth".

"I knew there was evidence linking Waki with the Akashas. Many people
like me have been jailed because of such kind of judges," Taib said.

"So you expected this would lead to your release?" Oraro asked.

"No, I just came to tell the tribunal the truth," Taib said.

"So for you it was just how to connect Waki, Chief Magistrate Boaz
Olao and Akasha?" Oraro asked.

"Just to speak the truth. Even Waki knows he was Akasha's friend," the
witness said.

Taib insisted that Waki was helping Akasha at the judiciary in Mombasa
and that he knew all this through Akasha's sons.

"The particular duties he used to do for Akasha I don't know but I
used to see him with Akasha since 1999," the witness said.

"Were there any cases of Akasha's that Waki handled?" Oraro posed.

"I can't remember but I saw Waki with Akasha in 1997," Taib said.

"You do not know where the elder Akasha was helped?" Oraro asked.

"It was not my duty to know about the cases, but the relationship was
there," Taib said. He added that he was only involved in escorting
drugs and not court cases.

Oraro said the witness could not generalise that Waki was helping
Akasha while he did not know of any particular case in which the elder
Akasha was helped by the judge.

"Waki was judge and Akasha a drug dealer; so what business were they
doing together?" Taib asked Oraro.

Akiwumi, however, asked the witness why he was escorting the drug convoys.

"I was given security and I was promised I would not be arrested or
charged," Taib said.

He also said that he did what he did for the money.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin