With controversial businesswoman Joyce Akinyi convicted in a drug trafficking case, the heat has been turned up on the powerful accomplices who tried to shield her from facing the music.
The Star has learnt that during her protracted five-year long prosecution, unnamed but powerful people tried to influence the process.
At some point, they implicitly attempted to dissuade the prosecutors from going hard on her.
The prosecution team, led by Norah Achieng, Annette Wangia and Faith Mwila, presented compelling evidence linking Akinyi to a sophisticated transnational narcotics operation.
Director of Public Prosecution, Renson Ingonga, told the Star that there were several tries to stall or influence the process, to see that all Akinyi got was a slap on the wrist.
“There were multiple attempts with powerful people seeking to influence prosecutors in one way or another, but we stood firm because we want this case to serve as warning to any traffickers out there that we are after them and we will get them,” Ingonga said.
“The people who tried to intervene are powerful and well connected. It is public knowledge that she has been in this crime for a while and she has been cheating the law all this time because of powerful people protecting her. They thought they could try it with us.”
Now that Akinyi and her co-accused are facing jail time, Ingonga said he will work with police to unmask this network of faceless individuals.
“We don’t know them and hence we cannot drop names. As you know we are lawyers who work with cogent (convincing) evidence,” the DPP said.
“But we will work with police and our partners to get to them and lay them bare for justice. In court, we want a biting sentence that will serve a warning shot to these shadowy individuals,” he added.
Akinyi gained notoriety over the years for handling heroin, alongside her then-Nigerian husband Anthony Chinedu, who got deported from the country in 2014.
Investigators say she ran the illicit trade in a hierarchical network that had recruited young men and women. They only used word of mouth for communication and instructions.
Her shipment markets were mainly Asian countries, where her unlucky conduits got intercepted and are serving various lengths of jail term.
The proceeds of her crime were mainly invested in the hospitality sector and real estate in Nairobi West, Langata and Kileleshwa. Some was spent on luxury vehicles.
In 2020, during the pendency of this case that led to her nabbing, the High Court ordered that she surrender two luxury vehicles worth Sh20 million and their logbooks to the state.
This was after she was unable to explain how she acquired them. They were declared proceeds of crime.
She, alongside Congolese national Pauline Kalala and Peres Ochieng’ were arrested on July 13, 2019 at Akinyi’s Deep West bar in Nairobi West. Anti-narcotic police officers allegedly found them in possession of 1,002 grammes of heroin worth Sh3 million, in violation of section 4(a) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Control Act of 1994.
It was concealed in a clear polythene bag wrapped in cello tape under a shoe rack. Ochieng’ was charged with possessing 880.86 grammes of heroin worth Sh2,64 million concealed in the false side of her handbag.
They were also charged with possessing forged DRC passports contrary to Section 54(1)(c) of the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act of 2011.
The trio were arraigned before the JKIA law courts where the trial concluded.
The court proceedings went on in the absence of Ochieng, who absconded after being placed on her defence. Judgment was delivered, with sentencing set for December 10, 2024.
Following the developments, detectives say they intend to pursue freezing some of the property owned by Akinyi and her accomplices, as they are proceeds of crime.
Akinyi is not a stranger to prison on account of drug trafficking, having served time in an Indian jail.
She was secretly known as ‘the queen’ in parts of Nairobi, where she and Chinedu allegedly ran a secret drug trafficking ring, using young men and women as mules.
Some of the narcotics, according to the investigators, were sent as far as Europe and Asia.
Those who were lucky would come back, but some were nabbed - mostly in Asian countries - where they are serving sentences.
Before 2007, little was known about Akinyi.
Aside from the regular news about her court woes involving drug trafficking, she shot to national fame in 2009, when she engaged in a public fight with her Nigerian husband as their union split and a struggle for properties ensued.
The fight, over the control of their children and property, ended in court where she publicly accused Chinedu of being a wanted drug trafficker.
Investigations show the fallout between Akinyi and Chinedu stemmed
from the fight for control of the narcotics empire.
The matter has not been settled
since.
