When investigating the multi-billion shilling narcotics business in Coast Province, one is met with authorities' conspiracy of silence. There is a lot of suspicion and fear as some people warn that the probe is a dangerous affair. Kenya is an important transit route for Southwest Asian hashish and heroin dealers. Europe is the primary market and North America the secondary destination. Eastern Africa representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Mr Carsten Hyttel, once remarked that South American traffickers had moved into Kenya. [continues 1277 words]
Former Nairobi Chief Magistrate Boaz Olao convicted Mohamed Ghani Taib of drug trafficking in 2000 after he failed to contribute to an alleged Sh 4 million bribe given to the magistrate, a tribunal heard yesterday. "The accused was not convicted because of evidence in court," State Counsel Mbuthi Gathenji told the tribunal investigating the conduct of suspended Court of Appeal judge Philip Waki. The tribunal sitting in Nairobi is being chaired by retired Appeal Court judge Akilano Akiwumi. Gathenji took Olao through several statements made by Taib and several of his co-accused during the 4.7 tonne hashish case in 2000. [continues 187 words]
Nairobi The 4.7 tonnes of hashish impounded from a house in Nyali, Mombasa, in 2000 was never destroyed, a tribunal investigating the conduct of suspended Court of Appeal judge Philip Waki heard yesterday. Instead, what was destroyed under the supervision of former Nairobi Chief Magistrate Boaz Olao was heroin. The number of sacks destroyed was also less than those indicated in the Occurrence Book at Bamburi Police Station. Olao, who is now Thika Chief Magistrate, had convicted Mohamed Ghani Taib and another of trafficking in hashish but freed two sons of the late drug baron Ibrahim Akasha, Kamaldin and Baktash for lack of evidence. [continues 374 words]
Nairobi Former Police Commissioner Edwin Nyaseda was bought a house at Savannah Estate in Nairobi by late drug baron Ibrahim Akasha, a witness told a tribunal investigating suspended Court of Appeal judges. Mohamed Ghani Taib yesterday told the tribunal investigating the conduct of suspended judge Philip Waki that Nyaseda began working for the Akashas in the early 1990s when the two used to escort containers of drugs to and from various points in Mombasa. "I was even surprised when I learnt from Kamiti (Prison) that Nyaseda was appointed a police commissioner," Taib, who is serving a 15-year sentence for drug trafficking said. [continues 295 words]
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. [continues 410 words]
