Pubdate: Tue, 30 Mar 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: Willis Oketch FIVE YEARS AFTER AKASHA DEATH, 'MAMA MAFIA' TRYING TO RIVAL HIM Nairobi -- Ibrahim Akasha is perhaps the biggest name to come out of Mombasa as an international drug dealer. Five years after his death, new drug lords said to be handling a narcotic load that makes Mombasa probably the most drugged town in Kenya are following his footsteps. And one of the major ones in the coastal town is a Tanzanian woman who lives in a palatial, heavily fortified house in Likoni. Even the police dread her name, yet few people really know the shadowy figure operating in the underworld. Police sources said she is best known by several nicknames, Mama Mafia, Bawazir or Mama TZ. Mama Mafia lives in a beautiful house in Likoni, surrounded by stone wall fence with a solid iron gate. Police sources describe her as a mysterious woman because she is rarely seen during day time. She drives posh four-wheel drive cars and sleek limousines with tinted windows. She rarely leaves her house but police say she has young girls and boys she sends to do her illicit business. Her massive supply of drugs is said to come from Tanzania, smuggled into Kenya by a Kenyan drug dealer nicknamed as Waziri. Waziri has a house behind a secondary school in the island. He is the main hard drug smuggler for not just 'Mama Mafia' but also other barons. According to police, he smuggles heroin and cocaine from Tanzania through Likoni-Lunga Lunga road. Police sources said Waziri recently shifted base to Likoni from Kisauni, where residents who accused him of drug-running flushed him out. The drugs are ferried by Tanzanian buses if the road is favourable (police checks), and through panya (short-cuts) routes when things are not good. Waziri is also said to have a local network of bhang originating from Uganda through Busia via Kisumu, then to Mombasa. Some of the bhang comes from Tanzania through Isebania-Migori border and to Mombasa, according to police. It is often ferried in the boots of saloon cars to beat checks by police. Waziri, like Mama Mafia, is also very rich and police sources say he is known to be dealing in drugs in a big way but somehow has never been arrested. Law abiding neighbours of Mama Mafia in Likoni spoke of their frustrations in their efforts to report the drug baron to police. She somehow never gets arrested, despite police cars frequenting her house. "We have tipped off police several times on her activities but the officers, of all ranks, are in her pocket, otherwise how come she never gets arrested?" wonders a Likoni resident. But police sources say she has been arrested severally but has always managed to get her way out. Indeed, she was taken court sometimes back but was never convicted, same as Waziri. A drug peddler in the Old Town who knows her says she is a proud woman who talks to people, through a heavily grilled window. Several bouncers keep everyone without an appointment out of the house. Most appointments are with her major drug suppliers who go there to collect their consignment. Police say most of the drugs arriving in Mombasa are orders for Mama Mafia, who then re-supplies the island and its environs. Police sources say there are several other rich drug barons in the town who operate independently of Mama Mafia, but for now she appears to the largest dealer. She cannot possibly surpass Akasha, whose business spanned several countries and continents and who at one time was said to have brought a full container of drugs through the Port of Mombasa. But as far as drugs supply is concerned, Mama Mafia is said to be flooding the town with as much narcotics as the late drug baron. Police sources say the reason she is not arrested is that she is well-connected with the police. Even when raids are ordered, sources say nothing is found because she is warned by her police connections in advance and has time to tidy everything up. Many Likoni youths who are in the drugs business are said to be ready to defend her as she pays them well. Some people who have crossed the path of Mama Mafia's network have met her full wrath. A retired military major told of how he was beaten up by bouncers allied to the woman after he reported to police another woman who lives in Kaloleni and who supplies drugs to Mama Mafia. The former soldier was forced to move his business premises from Kaloleni when he asked why the woman had not been prosecuted. Police, who harassed him, also raided his house and shop claiming he was dealing in drugs.