Gideon Moi
RETIRED President Moi’s son Gideon, former beauty queen Deborah Sanaipei, and local musician Prezzo are among the new names in the dossier of suspected drug traffickers tabled by Internal Security minister George Saitoti in Parliament on Thursday.
Saitoti told Parliament that the dossier had been compiled by the American government and presented to him last year by US ambassador Michael Ranneberger. The same dossier was handed over to the Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Although the names in the Ranneberger report are covered by Parliamentary privilege, all those made public so far have vociferously denied any involvement in the drugs trade. Saitoti ordered Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere to conduct investigations on the information in the dossier but the preliminary police report presented this week absolved the MPs of any involvement in the drugs trade and is attached to the Ranneberger dossier which was tabled by Saitoti.
Five current and former MPs— Juja’s William Kabogo, Kisauni’s Hassan Joho, Kilome’s John Harun Mwau, Makadara’s Gideon Mbuvi aka Mike Sonko, and former Kamukunji MP Simon Mbugua were mentioned when the matter first resurfaced in Parliament last year.
According to the Ranneberger dossier tabled on Thursday, Gideon Moi is said to be a co-owner with Kabogo of Orbit Transporters, a firm that the dossier says is involved in arms trafficking from Kenya to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Political activist Mary Wambui is mentioned but not in connection with drug trafficking. She is cited as a guest of Joho’s brother Abubakar. The US claim Abubakar is a leading narcotics dealer in Mombasa who introduced Joho into the trade.
“Abubakar usually hosted powerful politicians such as Mary Wambui, second wife of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki,” page 5 of the report tabled by Saitoti says in part.
Kabogo on Thursday read out this section when he demanded to know why Saitoti had been selective in named him and the others as those suspected of involvement in the drugs trade.
Mathira MP Ephraim promptly stood up on a point of order saying the President had gone on record to clarify to the country that he had only one wife.
Presidential candidate Eugene Wamalwa is cited on page 12 as the person who “assisted” in waiving import duty on for a “suspicious” container shipment brought in by Kabogo. “Approximately Sh2 million in unspecified currency was spent on bribes,” the dossier prepared by Ranneberger says.
PNU Secretary for Integrity Stanley Livondo is accused of running a transportation company as a front for Kabogo’s cocaine smuggling. The report mentions former Miss Tourism Kenya and Miss Tourism Africa beauty queen Debra Sanaipei Ntimama as being a suspected courier and having attended a meeting in June 2008 with Kabogo and other Kenya based trafficking associates and a group of unidentified Nigerians from Miami. The meeting was allegedly held at Havana restaurant in Nairobi.
According to the report, others in attendance included Diana Chebet Koech, a Kenya Airways senior flight attendant and the girlfriend of Kenya based narcotics trafficker Ken Obinna, Anthony Chinedu Ifedigbo aka Tony Wale aka Tony Chinedu who has been involved in a long running custody and property battle with his estranged Kenya wife Joyce Akinyi. “It is not known what was discussed in the meeting,” the report says. Others named include “Mary Riziki, the owner of Makini Herbal Clinic that has been involved in Gitau’s (Kabogo’s) narcotics trafficking activities.”
Also mentioned is Riziki’s son Jackson Makini, popularly known as Prezzo, who is a well-known Kenyan pop singer. It claims the singer has long been involved in Kabogo’s narcotic business. “Gitau (Kabogo) served as best man at Jackson’s 6th December 2008 wedding, which reportedly was attended by a number of narcotics traffickers who paid an entrance fee of 5,000 Kenyan shillings each,” the dossier claims.
The dossier claims that John Harun Mwau was “probably” involved in a shipment of the 1.25 metric tons of cocaine that was seized in Mombasa and Nairobi in December 2004, the largest seizure in Kenyan history and that Mwau blamed Kabogo for the seizure valued at Sh6.4 billion. “The current state of their personal relationship is unclear. However, their professional relationship- for both licit and illicit business appears to have continued,” the report says. “Gitau and Mwau are considered to be dangerous and have been linked to “contract killings,” the report states.
Michael Musa Munga is identified as a narcotics dealer who stores his drugs in Gikomba, Mathare, Githurai and uses street beggars and street children in Nairobi’s CBD to peddle the drugs.
He is said to use the drivers and conductors of his fleet of buses to distribute the drugs. He is reported to have been “socially and professionally” linked to the late CID boss Gatiba Karanja.
The report says Munga uses a location near Eastleigh Air Force Base in Nairobi as a packaging facility. From there, Musa connived with unidentified base commanders to package and drive them out in military vehicles for distribution elsewhere.
Others named in the report are Humphrey Kariuki Ndegwa who owns several businesses in partnership with unidentified German and Italian businessmen and served as a board member for Dalbit Petroleum, a fuel depot in southern Sudan that was involved in drugs, weapons and human trafficking. Ndegwa is cited as the owning the Green Corner restaurant suspected to be a front company for drug trafficking. The restaurant’s bank account received a Sh2billion deposit in 2005 allegedly on behalf of Mwau, the report states.
Alan Herd (Allan Hurd), said to be the ‘de facto’ manager of the Kijepwa airstrip and the Mombasa flying club, allegedly allowed traffickers to use the airstrip to smuggle drugs into Mombasa. According to the report, Herd is the owner of the Wines of the World and is associated with a fruit juice business owned by Allesandro Torriani which are believed to be fronts for drug trafficking.
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