Drugs discovery raises questions over exhibit handling

Seven Kenya Navy officers who were arrested with 24 kilogrammes of suspected Methamphetamine valued at Sh 192 million at the Mombasa Law Court in Mombasa County on Thursday 11th December 2025. [Kelvin Karani, Standard]

The recent discovery of some 24 kilos of methamphetamine (crystal meth) allegedly in the hands of seven navy officers valued at Sh192 million has raised questions over the handling of exhibits.

This discovery was laid bare in court after the Anti-Narcotics Unit (ANU) of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) arraigned the officers in court seeking orders to hold them and scrutinise their phones.

The navy officers who appeared at the Mombasa Magistrates Court on December 11, 2025, are Duke Nyamwaya, Juma Mwinyifaki, Michael Kariuki, James Ekiru, Elijah Mbogo, Abdulrehman Salad and Abdirahman Abdi.

Police sources believe that the 24 kilos of crystal meth are part of 1,024 kilos that were found in a stateless vessel that was intercepted by Kenya’s security agencies and international partners on October 25, 2025.

Six Iranian nationals were arrested in the vessel MV Mashallah that was in the high seas, some 630 kilometres away from the shoreline and arraigned in a Mombasa court and their case will resume in early January 2026.

The six are Imran Baloch, Hassan Baloch, Nadeem Jadgai, Jasem Darzaen Nia, Imtiyaz Daryayi and Rahim Baksh.

Police were allowed to  detain the six men and exploit some seven phones found in their possession as they probed the origin, destination and owners of the shipment and vessel.

All was well until on the night of December 2, when the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) in a rare statement on X came out to deny that its officers were implicated in the alleged theft of crystal meth for personal gain.

“We wish to clarify that the entire 1,024 kilograms of methamphetamine offloaded ashore remains intact and is under continuous, round-the-clock protection by a dedicated multi-agency security team,” they said.

KDF further said that several officers were being investigated by various authorities promising that disciplinary and legal action would be taken.

In the wake of this statement a lead that blew the case wide open was the arrest of a woman in Mombasa City who was found selling a whitish substance believed to be the synthetic drug a day later.

The lady who is a relative to a sitting MP from coast and is married to a KDF officer was found with several kilos of the ‘drug’ and some Sh700,000 in cash.

What is not known yet is where she got the drugs which are part of the shipment and if she was allegedly contracted to sell the drugs on behalf of the officers.

“The drugs from the woman are the same from the ones we intercepted in October and her arrest is what led us to the army guys,” said an officer involved in the investigation.
Police constable Isaac Njoroge of ANU who is part of the investigations team probing the navy officers said that they found the 24 kilos in sachets allegedly in the hands of Nyamwaya, Mwinyifaki, Kariuki and Ekiru.

Njoroge in his affidavit said that in Nyawaya’s house they found 11 whitish packages, Mwinyifaki’s house they found two, in Kariuki’s house they found five and in Ekiru’s house they found one.

He said that no drugs were found in Mbogo, Salad and Abdi’s possession but interrogations, intelligence, communication and witness information linked them to the primary suspects.

The police were allowed to detain the seven navy men for 15 days as they probe the case.

Njoroge said that the investigations team was pursuing various angles of investigations with the aim to identify witnesses, collect and recover more evidence.

“Releasing the respondents now may pose a serious risk of witness interference, destruction of electronic evidence and coordination with accomplices who may conceal key exhibits. Their continued detention is necessary to complete profiling and forensic analysis and to protect the integrity of the investigation,” said Njoroge.

He added that the investigations team needed to have seven in custody as their release would create the risk of remote data deletion, communication with accomplices or interfering with cloud-based records.

The investigator also argued that the seven might interfere with witnesses if released.