AKASHAS 'BOUGHT NYASEDA A HOUSE'

Nairobi

Former Police Commissioner Edwin Nyaseda was bought a house at Savannah
Estate in Nairobi by late drug baron Ibrahim Akasha, a witness told a
tribunal investigating suspended Court of Appeal judges.

Mohamed Ghani Taib yesterday told the tribunal investigating the conduct of
suspended judge Philip Waki that Nyaseda began working for the Akashas in
the early 1990s when the two used to escort containers of drugs to and from
various points in Mombasa.

"I was even surprised when I learnt from Kamiti (Prison) that Nyaseda was
appointed a police commissioner," Taib, who is serving a 15-year sentence
for drug trafficking said.

The witness, who has been stood down several times to give way for other
witnesses, was being cross-examined by Nyaseda's lawyer Patrick Jaleny.

Taib said the last time he was with Nyaseda was in December 1999, when he
sent Sh50,000 and a two bottles of whisky to Nyaseda's house as a Christmas
present from Akasha.

He said he started trafficking drugs with Nyaseda when the latter was
Deputy Provincial Criminal Investigations Officer in Mombasa. Taib said
there was a woman who could testify that they had lunch at one time in
Nyaseda's house and that he (Nyaseda) used to visit his house several times
and even ate lunch there.

Taib indicated that the woman who cooked lunch for them at Nyaseda's
residence could be called to testify.

Taib: All my wives are known to Nyaseda, They even cooked food for him.

Jaleny: Do you have documentary evidence to show that you and Nyaseda were
together?

Taib: In drug trafficking you can't have documents. You are just given
bribes and you work.

Jaleny: You are an incorrigible, shameless liar who is behaving like a
drowning man ...

Taib: You have been paid to come to talk like that but I have not been paid.

Taib said Nyaseda allegedly covered up for those involved in the 4.7 tonnes
of hashish that was impounded in a Nyali House in Mombasa.

"He did not even want to arrest the owner of the house in which the drug
haul was discovered," Taib charged.

Taib had previously told the tribunal that Waki and former Nairobi Chief
Magistrate Boaz Olao had received a Sh4 million bribe from Baktash Akasha
at Kentmere Club in Limuru in 2000, to help in the case.