This archive report was first published on 2 January 2020.
On January 2, 2020, a Kenyan court handed down a 10-year prison sentence to a Nigerian national, Samuel Uche, and a Kenyan, Geoffrey Onchangu Ondieki, for their roles in a heroin trafficking ring.
According to court documents, Uche was found with 484.315 grams of heroin, valued at Sh1,452,945, at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi on March 3, 2017.
Uche had disguised the heroin as a birthday present inside a tortoise-shaped wood carving.
Onchangu Ondieki, on the other hand, was accused of trafficking 1,000.16 grams of heroin, valued at Sh3,000,480, to Nigeria.
The total value of the drugs is Sh4,453,425.
During sentencing, Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina noted that evidence showed Uche had purchased wooden items, which he sent to one Ruth Brown of The Netherlands on March 1, 2017.
Onyina also said documents indicated that Uche's items were found at the JKIA, ready for export to The Netherlands on March 17, 2017.
Onchangu Ondieki's drugs were found when customs and anti-narcotics officers dismantled the motorcycle spare parts he was transporting.
Although Onchangu Ondieki denied being the exporter of the heroin to Uche's brother in Nigeria, his national identity card number corresponded with that found in export documents.
Onyina said the substance found in the spare parts and the wood carvings was heroin.
“The creamish, powdery substance in the ply bags sent to the government analyst was found to contain diacetylmorphine (heroin), a narcotic drug listed in the first schedule of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act, 1994,” he said.
Onyina further noted that the office of the director of public prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that the two trafficked the drugs.
"Drug trafficking is a vice that should be fought by all given the negative effects to society locally and internationally," Onyina noted.
