Kenyan in Italian jail over drug trafficking

Suspected drug trafficker Judith Akinyi has been thrown into a remand prison in Rome, Italy, the government confirmed on Thursday.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the Italian police arrested Akinyi on the streets of the Italian capital on April 19, this year, after they found her lying by the roadside, unconscious.

According to the ministry’s head of Public Affairs and Communications, Ms Judith Ngunia, the former convict who became the face of reforms in Kenyan prisons thanks to her exemplary conduct while serving a nine-year jail term at Lang’ata Women’s Prison, is currently at the Rebibia remand prison in Rome.

“She was arrested on April 19 while in hospital where she had been rushed after being found lying unconscious on a roadside.

“At the hospital, she was found having swallowed some 300 grammes of heroin,” Ms Ngunia said in a statement.

She underwent an operation to remove the pellets before she was taken to an Italian court to answer charges of trafficking in drugs and remanded at the Rebibia remand prison on May 12, the statement said.

Akinyi is said to have told Italian interrogators that she is a victim of a powerful network of international drug traffickers unhappy with her crusade against drug trafficking and her possible collaboration with Kenyan and American authorities in naming them.

Her court-appointed lawyer has contacted the Kenyan embassy in Rome seeking more information on Akinyi.