SEEJ AFRICA:
It has been just over 11 years since Mombasa police seized 2152 kg of ivory, attributed at the time to Feisal Mohamed Ali, who was arrested in Tanzania six months later. In June 2014, Mohamed Ali was recognized as an ivory trafficking logistician, transporting tonnes of ivory from Tanzania and Uganda to Mombasa port. He was reportedly working for the Akasha brothers drug cartel and more specifically half brother, Mohamed Tenge. Feisal’s corrupted initial trial, his conviction, and eventual acquittal on appeal was stuff from which movies could be made.
On August 26th, 2025, seemingly a fallen star, Mohamed Ali, now 58 yrs, was arrested as a wildlife trophy street peddler by undercover Kenya Wildlife Service ‘buyers’. He, with another not so spring chicken, 78 year old Mohamed Kontoma, were arrested in the process of selling 2 rhino horn weighing 2.2kg. They were arrested in the Mama Ngina waterfront area of Mombasa, in view of the harbour and the 24/7 ferries crossing to Likoni.
Mohamed Ali and Kontoma were atypically taken to Nairobi (a one hour flight or eight hour drive) where they faced Senior Principal Magistrate Thuku the next morning as the ODPP prosecutor applied to have them kept in custody while further investigation was conducted. The application was successful.
As of October 8th, 2025, both accused (Feisal now identifying as Feiswal Mohamed Ali) have pleaded not guilty to charges of Possession and Dealing in Wildlife Trophies.
This time the Kenya Wildlife Service is at the helm of the investigation. Hopefully, a cleaner and more successful result can be attained.
Convicted, freed and arrested again: Ivory trafficker Feisal Ali busted with rhino horns
Previous conviction
POST SCRIPT
On August 27th, 2025, NTV news was reporting on the recent arrest of Feisal Mohamed Ali by KWS, Ali found dealing in 2.2 kg of rhino horn on the Mombasa waterfront. As part of the brief, reporter Dann Mwangi stated: “Feisal was previously convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison before being acquitted under unclear circumstances in Mombasa.”
When discussing Kenyan court cases, the expression “unclear circumstances’ means only one thing: corruption. The Feisal prosecution, beginning with the actual seizure of 2152 kg of ivory on June 5th, 2015, was a veritable feast of “irregularities” and “unclear circumstances”.
While there was no question as to Ali’s factual guilt, his legal guilt was another story. Many do not realize that the case against Feisal was purely circumstantial. He was never found with ivory. The DNA evidence indicating that the ivory came from Tanzanian and Kenyan elephants never went into court (it was offered), or even, in fact, how the ivory came to be in Mombasa. The truck Feisal was alleged to have used to transport the ivory was never forensically examined. There was no evidence of his dealing in ivory and no evidence of his organized crime connections to the Akasha’s or the West African crime group.
In her conviction of Mohamed Ali, Principal Magistrate Diana Mochache (she is now a high court judge) chose to overlook the “irregularities”, including the total absence of police investigative protocols and clearly perjured testimony. It will never be known whether she actually believed that the circumstantial evidence was enough to convict or whether someone had whispered ‘conviction required’ in her ear. It is my strong belief that it was the latter. And who could blame her? If one’s country offers promotion and job security to convict someone known to be guilty as opposed to being mired in a rural court on the Somalia border, what would most people choose?
When the acquittal on appeal came two years later, it was anything but ‘unclear’. Lady Justice Dora Chepkwony decimated PM Mochache’s judgement, with all the trial ‘irregularities’ coming into play.
Convictions need to be based on rule of law, and while most will not argue that Feisal was guilty of dealing 2152 kg of ivory and much more tonnage besides, it is imperative that all involved in the justice system play by the rules. That did not happen in the 2015 trial.
Let us hope that lessons have been learned. The fact that this trial is to be set at the JKIA court in Nairobi and not in Mombasa is a promising early sign, but the KWS, ODPP and Magistrate Njeri Thuku will have their hands full warding off the benefactors of Feisal and the TCO of which he is a part.
