More drug barons will be arrested and prosecuted, Uhuru warns

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday warned that more drug barons will be arrested and prosecuted, giving the clearest indication yet that the government was involved in the extradition of two sons of slain drug baron Ibrahim Akasha and two foreigners to the US to face drug trafficking charges.

The President spoke as details emerged about how Baktash Akasha, his young brother Ibrahim Akasha, Pakistani Ghulam Hussein and Indian Vijaygiri Goswami were rounded up by officers from different units and handed over to US anti-narcotics agents who flew them to New York for trial.

Speaking in Mombasa, President Kenyatta warned that more drug barons will face the same fate as the four suspects.

“These people who are disturbing us with drugs, I want to tell them that their days are over,’’ he said in Likoni. “This is just the beginning. We have started hunting them down. You will continue to see and hear more. They will have to look for another country (to conduct their illicit trade), not in Kenya,” he said at the Likoni Muslim polling centre during a voter mobilisation mission.

The President did not expound, but his remarks were received with applause from the residents and leaders at the function.

His warning conformed with a statement by US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agent Raymond Donovan who praised the cooperation of the government in the long hunt for the Akasha brothers and their two accomplices.

“We are relentlessly pursuing these criminal groups and their facilitators at every level with our law enforcement partners and we value and appreciate the work of our Kenyan counterparts. It is critical that we attack these dangerous networks before they can do even more damage worldwide and threaten innocent lives,” he said as it emerged on Wednesday that a close friend of Baktash might have helped police to seize the four.

Reliable sources revealed that the friend, a foreigner, led to the arrest of Baktash who was at his home near Noor mosque in Nyali, when he was seized on Sunday.

According to the source, the friend was also arrested but was soon released by the detectives who raided Baktash’s house.

“The man was very close to Baktash, in fact he was also locked up when Baktash was arrested but he has been released. He was the key to the arrest of those people,” said the source.

Baktash was in his house on Sunday after the arrest of his three accomplices: his younger brother Ibrahim, Hussein and Goswami.

LINKS ROAD

Mr Goswami was arrested while playing golf at the Nyali Golf Club, Mr Ibrahim Akasha was driving along Links Road in Nyali, while Mr Hussein was picked up dramatically from his Nyali house.

The four suspected drug barons, who had been fighting extradition for more than three years, were promptly flown to the US to face charges of trafficking in heroin and other drugs. They left Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Monday aboard a chartered plane.

Their arrival in America was announced by US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara and Mr Donovan.

On Wednesday, another source said the operation to arrest them was planned in Nairobi.

“Everything was planned in Nairobi, in fact all those detectives who were involved in the operation are senior officers from Nairobi and that is because police chiefs had no faith in their Mombasa colleagues whom they said could have been compromised by the suspects,” he said.

The Akasha family, meanwhile has asked the government to bring back their sons.

Ms Fatma Akasha, their mother, asked the authorities to produce her sons and try them in Mombasa.

'IN VAIN'

“My sons have never gone to America. If they have committed any crime let them face the court here in Kenya. I am a Kenyan and so are my sons. I last spoke to them on Saturday and that same day is when the officers came to my house and looked for them in vain," she said.

Ms Akasha said: “They (officers) harassed my daughter and our family lawyer. They pointed guns at them and conducted a check, they mistreated us, but all we ask from our government is to bring them back and try them here in Kenya”.

The Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK) welcomed the arrest of the Akashas and their associates and asked the government not to relent in its war against drug barons.

The council said there were other drug kingpins in the region.

Speaking during a press briefing at the council headquarters in Mwembe Tayari, Mombasa County, CIPK organising secretary Sheikh Mohammed Khalifa called for closer cooperation between the different authorities in the war against drug cartels.

“We are really happy by the move by government to surrender the big fishes, who are the reason our youth are suffering because of drugs. That was a superb move by our officers and we would not want them to relent,” said Sheikh Khalifa.

Report by Njeri Rugene, Mohamed Ahmed, Daniel Nyassy and Fadhili Fredrick.