Demonstrations: Judges accused of protecting drug lords in Mombasa:
A section of Mombasa County residents on Thursday morning held demonstrations against the Judiciary.
They accused the Judiciary of corruption and protecting drug lords in Mombasa Country.
The residents, who marched at the gate of Sarova Whitesands Beach and Resort, the venue of 2019 Annual Judges conference.
SACK JUDGES
They want President Uhuru Kenyatta to sack the judges mentioned in the drugs case in the US where the Akasha brothers (Baktash and Ibrahim) are being tried.
While chanting ‘Haki yetu, Haki Yetu’ (our rights, our rights) the protesters temporarily blocked the main Mombasa-Malindi highway.
“Let us stand firm as Kenyans against such (corrupt) judges,” said one of the protestors.
This comes days after the sentencing of Baktash Akasha to 25 years in prison by a US court.
A former senior official in the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, a number of judges and several government officials are facing extradition to the US on drugs-related charges.
CHARGE SUSPECTS
Sources indicate that the US government has already made its intention to the Kenyan government to charge the suspects in US courts.
The protestors are demanding that judges and magistrates mentioned during the Akasha brothers’ trial be investigated.
Last year, Kenyan judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officers, were accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from the Akasha brothers to frustrate their extradition to the United States to face drug trafficking charges.
Court documents reveal that the Akashas had conspired to pay “hundreds of thousands of US dollars in bribes to judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officials” in Kenya in an attempt to avoid extradition to the US.
Chief Justice David Maraga and other judges are attending the annual judges conference.
By WACHIRA MWANGI
Source-nation.co.ke
