A Mombasa court has ordered seven Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers to remain in custody for 10 days as investigators act swiftly to complete forensic examinations in a Sh192 million methamphetamine trafficking probe.
Senior Resident Magistrate Hon. Gladys Ollimo granted the order following an application by the Anti-Narcotics Unit (ANU) on Thursday, citing the complexity of the case and the need to have all the crucial evidence preserved.
The officers were apprehended on December 11 in a joint operation carried out by detectives from the DCI Headquarters and Mombasa Regional Headquarters.
The suspects, Duke Nyamwaya, Juma Mwinyifaki, Michael Kariuki, Elijah Mbogo Gacog’u, James Ekiru, Abdulrehman Salad, and Abdirahman Abdi Kuno are alleged to have trafficked 25 kilograms of methamphetamine, packed in whitish crystalline packets.
According to the investigating officer PC Isaac Njoroge, the searches conducted in the suspects’ homes and places of work led to the recovery of additional narcotic substances and 11 mobile phones, including Redmi, Tecno, Itel, Samsung Galaxy, Vivo, and Oppo models.
Magistrate Ollimo went further to authorize comprehensive forensic analysis of all the recovered electronic devices, which the investigators highly believe that it will help map communication patterns and expose links to a broader transnational drug trafficking network.
The court heard that the recovered drugs were yet to be weighed, sampled and chemically analyzed at the time of arrest due to the immediacy of the operation.
Prosecution team, Yassir Mohammed and Brenda Oganda argued that releasing the suspects could lead to witness interference, evidence tampering and possible coordination with accomplices who remain at large and therefore urged the court to consider the matter’s public interest and the need for a thorough probe.
The magistrate ruled that the high monetary value of the narcotics, the technical nature of the forensic processes, and the possibility of flight risk justified holding the soldiers for an extended period.
The case is set for mention on 22nd December 2025, when the court will receive an update on the progress of investigations.
