SEEJ-AFRICA Summary:

1. Abdurahman Mahmoud Sheikh @ Said Juma Said, his half brother, father, a KRA officer, and five others are alleged to have been involved in shipping 3127 kg of ivory to Thailand in a container of tea leaves in April 2015.  The nine accused face charges under the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act, the Prevention of Organized Crime Act and East African Community Customs Management Act.

2. On February 17th, 2021, Chief Magistrate E. Makori stated to the court that “the spectrum of the case is being lost” and the “only remedy is to bring this to a closure”.  He ordered the prosecution to bring all remaining witnesses for hearing on April 7th and 8th, for their case to be concluded at that time.

4.On May 24th, the ODPP made an application to the court requesting the new evidence be admitted as part of the trial.  It was made very clear that the accused, through their advocates, were opposed to the application and wished to present their case in open court.  That never happened.

5. In the year since the application, there have been delays, all from the prosecution side, for reasons not specified but certainly partially due to the transfer of Chief Magistrate E. Makori. Reading between the lines, one also has to question if Thailand has been anything but recalcitrant to submitted requests for mutual legal assistance by the ODPP. 

6. One is also left questioning whether there has been an issue in converting the ‘informally’ provided new evidence from U.S. Fish and Wildlife into evidence that can be presented to the Mombasa court.

7. The ivory shipment on which this prosecution is based was supplied by the West African (Kromah) cartel.  The history relating to previous Mombasa ivory prosecutions with Kromah connections has not been positive.  The only conviction that was registered was this past March (CF 417/2013) and it would be an understatement to suggest that 2 year jail sentence handed down was on the light side.   

8. It needs to said that while Prosecutor Yamina is the face of the DPP in this matter, the shots in this prosecution, with international ties to Thailand, now the United States, and perhaps even Uganda, are being called by his superiors in Nairobi, and most probably, above the ODPP.

Note: The story below refers to Mansur Mohamed Surur being extradited in 2019.  He was, in fact, arrested in July 2020 in Mombasa and extradited to the United States in January 2021.