Organized Crime Ivory Case Nearing Conclusion

A major ivory trafficking case now in its seventh year is closer to conclusion after the five accused persons gave evidence in their defense before a Nairobi court.  

On March 5^th, 2025, Abdinoor Ibrahim Ali, Wesley Silvanus Adweya, Hillary Karani, Rawlings Innocent Ogondi and his brother, Ronson Ogondi Njue, appeared before Senior Principal Magistrate S.O. Temu in Kibera law courts. They are facing charges of Possession and Dealing in wildlife trophies in addition to a charge of ‘acting in concert with others in the commission of a serious offence’ under the Prevention of Organized Crime Act.

On June 27^th, 2017, officers of Kenya’s Special Crime Prevention Unit raided a home in the vicinity of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and recovered 216.7 kg of worked ivory that was in the process of being packaged as flowers for an air freight shipment to Bangkok, Thailand.  Weighing scales, a cutting machine, and various packaging materials were also seized.  By ivory seizure standards, while the particular haul was not large, subsequent investigation revealed that this small group was acting to the benefit of an international cartel based in Kampala.

Five men were arrested at the rental property, four of them having employment connections to JKIA. The sixth man, Abdinoor Ibrahim Ali, alleged to have links with a West African crime group, was arrested a few hours later.  Arguably the most significant arrest came three days later  when Ahmed Mohamed Salah, alias Ahmed Mahabub Gedi, was arrested at the Kenya/Tanzania border crossing of Namanga while attempting to flee the country.  While in police custody, he provided to investigators a detailed confession as to his financial involvement in the ivory consignment that originated from DRC and Uganda, and was planned to transit Nairobi via Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) before air transport to Thailand.

It was not long, however, before Mohamed Salah was released in a court decision that was highly suspect. Salah, of Somalian birth, schooled while at Daadab refugee camp, in possession of a fraudulent Kenyan identification, no fixed address in Kenya, resident of Mozambique for five years, in Kenya illegally for the criminal purpose of facilitating the trans-national trafficking of 216.7 kg of ivory, and arrested at a border point with Tanzania while fleeing justice, was permitted bond release on a 1 million shilling  (USD $10,000) cash bail and never seen again.

The defence hearing of March 5^th took place with the five remaining accused giving testimony on their behalf.  The first accused person, Julius Abluu Adika, whose home the ivory was found in, was no longer part of the case as he had reportedly passed away in 2022.  His absence, however, was taken advantage of by the remaining accused who styled their defence by throwing the responsibility of ivory ownership on him.

Accused Abdinoor Ibrahim Ali, told the court that he had never been to the house in question and only knew the third accused, Wesley Adwenya.  He knew nothing about the ivory found in the house.

Wesley Adwenya testified that he worked at JKIA as a clearing and forwarding agent, primarily a flower exporter. He was a nephew to the deceased accused Adika.

He said that on the day in question he had been contacted by his uncle who was unwell and requested a visit.  On his way there, he picked up Hillary Karani (fourth accused), and Rawlings Innocent Ogondi (fifth accused), who Adwenya described as his casual workers.  Adwenya continued that they were ambushed by police as they arrived at the gate of his uncle’s house.

Karani and Ogondi told the court that they were simply on their way to work at the airport and the stop over led to their arrest.

The sixth accused, Ronson Ogondi Njue, told Senior Principal Magistrate S.O. Temu, that he worked as a driver for a friend of the first accused and regularly parked his employer’s vehicle at the compound of the deceased accused. On the day of the arrest, he had gone to the compound to pick up the vehicle. (the said Isuzu pickup was subsequently ‘stolen’ from police custody some months after the ivory seizure and arrest).

Their testimony was in contrast to the police investigation that indicated that the deceased accused Adika, Wesley Adwenya, and Hillary Karani were inside the house in the act of packaging the ivory when officers of the Special Crime Prevention Unit arrived.  

Rawlings Innocent Ogondi and Ronson Ogondi Njue, the 5th and 6th accused, (and brothers) were in the process of leaving the compound when they were arrested.

Regrettably, the cross examination of the accused by the ODPP prosecutor would have been described as tepid at best, and no challenging questions were asked of the accused to challenge the discrepancies between the testimony of the accused and the police.

The case has been beset with other irregularities aside from the release of Ahmed Mohamed Salah; the apparent deception by Salah’s lawyer to the court over Salah’s failure to attend because of ‘sickness’, the Isuzu pickup truck seized by investigators on the day of the seizure went ‘missing’ from police custody a few months later, the non-arrest of the man believed to have cut the ivory for transit and identified through phone data, and the listing of Salah alias Gedi on the Interpol Red Notice list with no photograph, no alias, no descriptors, no offence listing, no mention that he was a resident of Mozambique. 

The matter will be before Kibera court next on April 2^nd to confirm the final submissions of both prosecution and defence counsel.