A court hearing the drug trial against three Kenyans and nine foreigners heard President Uhuru Kenyatta defied a court order barring the destruction of a ship suspected to have smuggled heroin with a street value of Sh1.3 billion.
Joseph Wafula, an anti-narcotics officer involved in the destruction, told a Mombasa court on Monday he was not aware of the court order at the time of blowing up the vessel. He was only acting on “orders from above”.
“I was a junior officer and I only followed instructions from my senior Hamisi Masa. I could not have questioned his orders or asked if there were court orders,” Wafula told the court.
He confirmed there was no a trial magistrate, lawyers or accused persons to indicate that the court had okayed the destruction. He also said they had not received orders allowing them to destroy the ship. It was also revealed the alleged heroin might not have been destined for Kenya as the accused persons did not have Kenyan visas.
Wafula said according to a clearance sheet, the goods were loaded in United Arabs of Emirates and were to be offloaded in Iran. The suspects are accused of smuggling 370.8kg heroin.
Uhuru, with other government officials witnessed the destruction of the MV al Noor vessel, on August 29, 2014. According to a court order issued before the destruction of the ship, the trial magistrate had barred anyone from destroying the vessel. The President, however, went ahead and destroyed the multi-billion vessel in a highly publicized event on the war on drugs.