Seven crew members of a drug-laden ship whose destruction was supervised by President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2014 have been found guilty of trafficking in heroin worth Sh1.3 billion.
Three Kenyans who had been charged alongside the seven foreigners, among them Pakistanis, were acquitted for lack of sufficient evidence against them.
Mombasa Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku ruled that Yousuf Yakoob, Yakoob Ibrahim, Saleem Muhammad, Bhatti Abdul Ghafour, Baksh Moula, Pak Abdolghaffer and Muhammed Saleh were guilty of the offence.
Ms Mutuku said the accused, who were crew members of a ship Amin Darya, also known as Al Noor, failed to exonerate themselves of the charges and did not state who had sent them.
“I find the accused guilty of the charge and are convicted,” said Ms Mutuku, who noted that the country had jurisdiction to try the accused, who were arrested in the high seas.
She further noted that the destruction of the vessel through an executive order did not in any way affect the case since investigators collected and preserved evidence, which was satisfactory for the court to convict the accused.
The vessel was blown up in the high seas 33 kilometres from the port of Mombasa and sank to a depth of 329 metres, as a sign of the government’s tough stand against drug trafficking.
Mr Kenyatta supervised the blowing up of the ship and its contents aboard a military helicopter.
The seven accused, jointly with others not before the court, were found trafficking by conveying in the cargo deck of ship 377.2 kilogrammes of creamish granular heroin, 33,200 litres of liquid heroin and 2,400 litres of diesel mixed with heroin on diverse dates between July 2 and 18, 2014, at Kilindini port berth number 8 within Mombasa County.
The magistrate said that it had been proved that drugs were found on the vessel and that prosecution witnesses told the court and demonstrated that the search mission and recovery took a lot of time because they were concealed.
“This was supported by the accused who said that they saw a police officer retrieve some substance. I see no reason why the drugs would be planted by security agencies,” said Ms Mutuku.
She further noted that the prosecution demonstrated how the drugs were seized, tested and how they were handled and that there was proper documentation of the scene through photographs that were produced in court.
The seven foreigners, the court noted, had admitted that they were crew of the vessel and had been contracted to transport white cement to Zanzibar, and were not destined to Mombasa.
Since their arrest in 2014, the seven have been in custody at Shimo La Tewa maximum prison.
The magistrate ruled that three Kenyans — Mohamed Osman Ahmed, Khalid Agil and Maur Bwanamaka — were simply agents, and that none of them was paid for the agency of the ship.
“The court was never provided with cogent evidence why police decided to charge the three, the only connection was a phone call, which the court finds was a weak link,” said Ms Mutuku.
During submissions, the prosecution led by Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Alexander Muteti had sought to have the accused sentenced to life imprisonment.
The sentencing against the seven will be on February 22.
