A businesswoman accused of trafficking cocaine worth Sh80,120 four years ago has been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
The Jomo Kenyatta International Airport ,(JKIA) Senior Principal Magistrate Njeri Thuku found Scola Imbiti Namunyu guilty of the offence of trafficking in narcotics drugs after the prosecution called a total of eight witnesses.
The Magistrate said the prosecution was able to prove that Scola dispatched an envelope with cocaine for delivery to Malindi.
Scola 50, was arraigned in court in 2019 . Her charge sheet indicated that on June 12 2019 at around 5pm, at Buscar booking offices along Nairobi-Mombasa highway within Nairobi County jointly with others not before court, Scola was found trafficking 20 grams of cocaine with a market value of Sh80,120.
She denied the charge.
Scola according to the court records is a freelance designer and is a single mother with three children aged 22, 17 and eight years respectively.
The prosecution called a former employee of Buscar as a witness to support their case.
Kelvin Kaloki was at the time a booking clerk with Buscar. His duty was to book tickets and receive parcels.
He narrated how Scola presented a parcel at 3.30 pm on the fateful day.
The envelope had contents but he did not know what it was.
It was destined for Malindi and the address and address were handwritten on the parcel.
The envelope which was part of the evidence produced in court read ‘To Noel Mbekure, Malindi ,from Rose Nairobi’.
Kelvin said he received the parcel and issued Scola with a receipt and she left.
But the convict was to come back with officers from the Anti-Narcotics Unit after they intercepted her along Mombasa Road.
Kelvin said the time between when Scola presented the parcel to him and when she returned accompanied by the police officers was one hour.
The Magistrate said Scola was guilty of trafficking by delivering.
The court further dismissed her defense that she didn’t visit Buscar.
Separately, Scola was found with 23 kg, 3.1 kg and 654 grams of heroin in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively.
She was on the three instances acquitted by a high court judge who also dismissed a case in which she was accused of card fraud angering the police.
Cases of drug trafficking have been on the rise in the country even as most traffickers avoid the mainly used routes in their business. Police say they now use roads as opposed to airports to carry out their business. The most commonly trafficked narcotics from Tanzania and through Uganda is heroin. Cocaine is also trafficked from the two countries.
Kenya made the second biggest seizure in July 2016 and arrested two suspects who were linked to the 100 kilograms of cocaine valued at Sh598 million disguised as sugar.
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