Trio jailed for 63 years, Sh150m fine for smuggling 572 kg of cannabis
Kenyan court approves extradition of Afghan official to US amid drug smuggling crackdown
A hawker, a courier and a 'mama fua' will pay Sh150 million as a fine and serve a cumulative 63 years behind bars for being nabbed with one of the highest quantities of bhang two years ago.
This is after High Court Judge James Wakiaga affirmed the fine and sentence handed to Stephen Sifuna Wekesa, Reuben Kioko Kimathi, and Elizabeth Wanjiku by the magistrate's court, after finding there was evidence linking them to 572.1 kilos of the prohibited narcotics.
For this, Wekesa and Kioko will serve 25 years each behind bars, and pay Sh 50 million each as a fine, while Wanjiku will serve 13 years and pay a similar amount as a fine.
"It is clear that the appellants herein had a joint enterprise and common purpose in the commission of the crime herein as can be seen from the evidence e tendered, the first appellant (Sifuna) secured the motor vehicle which was used in the conveying of part of the drugs and at the tail end of the journey handed the control thereof to the second appellant (Kioko) who was in touch with the third appellant (Wanjiku) who was in control of the store where the drugs were being stored before being distributed," said Justice Wakiaga.
This comes as High Court judge Alexander Muteti separately gave the State a green light to extradite a former Afghan official, Abdul Haji Abdul Zahir Qadeer, who is wanted by the US.
Zahir, who was an Afghan MP and deputy speaker, was arrested in Kenya but challenged the extradition process.
However, Justice Muteti agreed with the Director of Public Prosecutions that the treaty between the two countries was within the Constitution and international co-operation.
At the same time, Muteti said that Kenya had no interest in trying Zahir in its courts.
"The cooperation that the US seeks from Kenya in the instant matter is permissible in law and it would be against the spirit of international cooperation to decline the request yet the words of the convention are express on matters extradition absent of any evidence that the appellant may be subjected to prosecution and punishment on account of his race, religion, nationality or political opinions or subjected to torture. It is in the public interest and in keeping with reciprocity that Kenya allows the extradition of the appellant, for there is no intention to prosecute him here," the judge said.
In the Wekesa, Kioko and Wanjiku's case, the court heard that they were nabbed at Mihang'o, in Embakasi, Nairobi.
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