A suspected drug baron who has been remanded in Nairobi’s Industrial Area after his latest arrest faces a string of similar cases in various courts, records seen by the Sunday Nation reveal.
Mr Swaleh Yusuf Ahmed was arrested last month, but his lawyers want the case moved from the JKIA Senior Resident Magistrate’s court to the Mombasa chief magistrate. The High Court in Mombasa will hear the matter on November 21.
The dark, middle-aged man who spots a greying beard is accused by police and prosecutors of being a notorious drug trafficker.
Police believe that Mr Ahmed, alias Swaleh Kendereni or “Candy Rain”, is linked to 92kg of heroin with an estimated street value of more than Sh300 million seized in a house in Kikambala on September 20. This is one of the biggest heroin seizures in the country.
The discovery of the haul sparked a manhunt for his associates, leading to the arrest of Ms Fatma Ali Ahmed in Nairobi’s Eastleigh.
The police claim she was the manager of the Kikambala home where the stash of heroin was found. At the time of her arrest, Ms Ahmed was operating an M-Pesa outlet in Mombasa.
This is the third time Mr Ahmed is being arrested in connection with drug trafficking offences since last year, yet he has been operating freely out on bond.
In October last year, Mr Ahmed and his wife Asmah Abdalla were arrested and charged with being in possession of one kilogramme of narcotics at their home in Kikambala. The couple was released on bail.
The couple had been charged with trafficking 15kg of heroin worth Sh47 million just six months before, in February last year.
“The accused is a high profile trafficker who has a wide operative network," principal prosecuting lawyer Jami Yamin told the court when opposing Mr Ahmed's release on bail in February last year.
The prosecutor said Mr Ahmed was a major distributor whose trade had affected thousands of people in Mombasa. “His release will likely interfere with the investigation,” he told the court, which granted the suspect bail nonetheless.
In 2010, Mr Ahmed was jailed for 25 years for trafficking five kilogrammes of heroin. However, he successfully appealed the sentence at a Mombasa court and was acquitted for lack of evidence.
He was also charged at the Mombasa Law Courts in 2011 and 2013 with trafficking drugs, but he won the cases.
His recent arrest will mark another attempt by the authorities over the past two decades to have him firmly put behind bars.
Mr Ahmed was first convicted for 15 years in 1996 for trafficking in heroin and was sent to Shimo La Tewa Prison in Mombasa.
He was rearrested in October 2001 when it was revealed that a cartel of court and prison officials had forged documents to show that the Court of Appeal had allowed his release on bond pending the determination of his appeal.
It is not yet clear when he was released after this, but in 2010 he was once again back in court on a separate drug-related charge.
The revelation of the scandal of his premature release made the headlines and caused public uproar forcing a shake-up in the prisons department.
Our sources in Mombasa said Mr Ahmed started off as a matatu driver in Mombasa. The portrait painted by prosecutors in court cases is that of a man who rose from a small-time peddler of tablets like Rophypnol — widely known in the coastal town as “bugizi”— to a well-connected drug baron.
As his business grew, he also developed ties with influential politicians in the region suspected of providing him with political cover.
He shifted from his Bakarani home in Kisauni and built a second home in the upscale Kanamai in Kilifi County. Today he operates a fleet of minibuses, which he claims to be his main source of income. Authorities question his legitimacy as a businessman as tax records indicate no returns.
In addition, he owns a fleet of top of the range vehicles some of which were seized during the February 2017 raid at his Kikambala home that yielded 17kg of heroin and Sh18.5 million in cash.
He is suspected to be a close ally of Mr Stephen Bosire Nyaigoti, the suspected drug baron arrested and charged in March last year.
“Mr Bosire is a repeat offender who previously fled from police custody in handcuffs while being taken to police cells,” Coast Regional Coordinator Philip Tuimur said last year when he ordered his arrest.
The continued crackdown on drug dealers comes just weeks after two of Kenya’s most notorious drug lords, Baktash Akasha , 41, and his brother Ibrahim, 29, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in a court in the US.
Like Mr Ahmed, the Akasha brothers had long been accused by the police and prosecutors of manipulating the courts to win their freedom despite the many cases brought against them.
A confidential report seen by the Nation last year - which detailed the state of drug trafficking in Kenya - raised questions on the Judiciary’s handling of court cases involving suspected drug lords.
Ms Scholastica Namuyu Imbiti was allegedly found with 23kg, 3.1kg and 654g of heroin in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively.
Cases against Ms Evelyn Neema, who was in 2012 charged with trafficking in Sh84 million narcotics, and Ms Rehema Osoma were also mentioned as some of those that had been delayed by the courts.
