Revealed: Drug networks and politics in Kenya

Drug trafficking has captured sections of the business and political elite, soaking the fabric of affluent society, according to detailed crime intelligence information seen by the Daily Nation.

Sixteen well known Kenyans — among them national politicians, business magnates, senior police officers, a popular rapper and a beauty queen — are deeply involved in the drug trade, according to the report.

The hub of the drug trade is the port of Mombasa where hard drugs — cocaine and heroin — are handled for the domestic and international markets.

The report sensationally demonstrates that the people who run the drugs trade in Kenya are serving or former MPs.

The report, without providing details, also links prominent Kenyans with gunrunning, money laundering and human trafficking.

The document, marked “secret”, identifies a senior government official as overlord in the hierarchy of drug cartels as is referred to as “The Boss”.

He and his associates are described as “dangerous,” and is directly accused of contract killings targeting anybody investigating their businesses.

He is the head of an “unknown organisation” controlling almost the entire narcotics trade in Kenya, the report says.

A separate report tabled in parliament linked the 2004 murder of Kenya Ports Authority CID chief Hassan Abdillahi to the drugs trade at the Coast.

The secret reports have formed part of the basis of investigations ordered by police commissioner Mathew Iteere three weeks ago.

Most of the drug kingpins use family members as their main associates, ostensibly because the illicit trade requires a lot of trust and loyalty. At times, they use their girlfriends and mistresses, according to the report.

Politicians are named as key traffickers and to protect their illegal business, they have lured with bribes some senior police officers, officers from the anti-narcotics police unit, those from the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) as well as elements in the Judiciary.

The report also drags the military into the murky saga, citing cases on unspecified dates when military vehicles were used to ferry drugs in Nairobi.

Kenya Revenue Authority is blamed because containers belonging to some traffickers are neither inspected nor is duty charged on them.

A case is given where a diligent Customs officer seized a container suspected to contain drugs at container freight station in 2008. The report says the drug kingpin paid a bribe of Sh1 million to have the officer transferred.

It estimated that last year, MPs suspected of being drug lords “facilitated the importation of at least one shipment per week” through the port of Mombasa. The report is current and detailed.

For example, it recounts the importation of drugs from Pakistan this September which were off-loaded at Shimoni from a vessel whose name is provided. The registration number of the vehicle into which the drugs were transferred as well the MP alleged to be owner, are given.

It details drug dealing activities for the last six years, naming Pakistan, India and Afghanistan as sources of the drugs with Western Europe being the main destination.

A section of the reports has the bio data of the prominent personalities, including their age, their tribes, clans, the village of birth and their parents’ names.

In one of the cases detailed, one of the dealers, a suspected drug figure who has been prominently in the news in the recent past, had a house near the “Eastleigh AirForce base” where drugs were processed and packaged.

“Heroine was brought into the base by body-cavity couriers and was cut with unidentified chemicals, packaged using special machinery and shipped out of the base in military vehicles to other distribution sites,” the report says.

Military officers are suspected to have offered protection to the traffickers. A flight attendant of a local airline was also named as having met the traffickers at a pub in the city.

In another case, a police officer of the rank of superintendent is cited for providing storage services for a drug cartel while he peddles drugs for the local market.

An Israeli is mentioned as having taken advantage of his employer, a telecommunications company contracted by the General Service Unit and the Administration Police, to move cargo in and out of Kenya.

A chain that sold electronics and clothes, but has since closed, was at times used to store narcotics, the report further claims.

A popular city restaurant, a star-rated hotel at the city centre and an airstrip at the Coast are also identified as bases controlled by traffickers.

Says the report about well-heeled drug barons: “They use their wealth and political leverage to facilitate the movement of narcotics. A number of officers assigned to the anti-narcotics unit and members of the Judiciary received regular payments from major narcotics traffickers.”

While most of the drugs were shipped abroad, some amounts were consumed locally but packaged as a popular brand of sugar to ease transportation. Some of the traffickers disguise themselves as car dealers, hiding drugs in tyres and other parts of the vehicles.

A section of the report demonstrate how influential the drug barons are: it relates how an MP influenced a senior police officer to have Coast drug dealers enlisted as police reservists.

At present, three of the MP’s alleged associates are in prison, apparently having been unsuccessful in bribing a magistrate with Sh1 million after they were arrested by a separate team of police officers.

One of the MP’s associate was involved in the 2004 one tonne cocaine haul. Container freight stations were also registered and established by barons to facilitate the trade.

“Police operations were often compromised as investigators received little support from their superiors when attempting to conduct searches of premises or individuals connected to leading traffickers.”

Furthermore, senior officers intervened on behalf of suspects to secure the release of associates arrested and also disclosed identity of undercover officers to traffickers.

In another case police confiscated a suspicious container containing drugs hidden in a false bottom but the investigation was stopped after the suspect, an MP, paid a bribe.

The report gives registration and names of vessels used for shipment, the container numbers, vehicles used to transport them and their registration.

All couriers are also identified against telephone numbers and e-mail addresses used to do their transactions. The drugs were concealed as motor vehicle parts, cartons of shoes and clothing, alcoholic beverages as well as other legitimate goods.

Bribes to release containers were rarely less than Sh1 million, benefiting either the police or Customs officials, depending on who had seized it.

Beyond the Mombasa port, the traffickers control facilities in the country. Pakistan and Oman are identified as some of the sources of suspicious containers offloaded in Mombasa in 2008.

The report says they contained drugs but the manifests showed the cargo was ceramic tiles, aluminium doors and locks and candles.