How audio, text messages led to Joyce Akinyi's conviction

Joyce Akinyi at the Milimani Law Courts on November 6, 2014. [File, Standard] A series of text messages, audio and photos formed part of what the state used to convince the court to jail drug queen Joyce Akinyi for 25 years for trafficking heroin worth Sh5 million. Akinyi's partner, Paulin Kalala from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and their other accomplice, Peres Anyango, were jailed for 10 and 25 years, respectively. Akinyi's sister said that she had known Kalala for more than seven months and that the two had dated for more than two months. Akinyi and Kalala were both fined Sh9 million, while Anyango was fined Sh8 million. Anyango was however convicted and jailed in absentia after she skipped court and could not be traced, she has an active warrant of arrest. Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) Senior Principal Magistrate Njeri Thuku noted that Anyango might be using an alias since she was found with a fake DRC passport. Akinyi was also found to have two passports from DRC. Magistrate Thuku ordered that the two passports be returned to the country. READ: End of the road as drug queen Joyce Akinyi gets 25 years in jail According to the prosecution, a phone found in Anyango's bag held crucial evidence of how the two ran their operations. Magistrate Thuku noted that the two women at the time of their arrest were at the top of the drug trafficking chain. "Essentially they were drug barons, they had their own enterprise, with their own markets, their specific suppliers and regular customers," she said. She added that Akinyi used the Deep West hotel as a ruse for the drug-running operation. "It was a front she could use to justify the huge amounts of money flowing into her accounts." The Magistrate said that Kalala was not a bystander caught up in the complicated web of drug trafficking but was an active participant in the vice. He was Akinyi's lover, and they had been partners for more than two months, according to testimony from Akinyi's sister. When police raided Akinyi's office in Deep West, they found her in Kalala's company, while Anyango was in a different room. Anyango's bag contained the drugs and a phone that would form part of the crucial evidence against the three. Once exploited by investigators, they found images, audio and text messages that centred around Anyango travelling to Uganda where they suspected she was delivering the drugs. According to the police, it also offered a way into international trafficking operations around the world and Magistrate Thuku said at the time of the arrest they led international trafficking rings. They reportedly actively young men and women as mules who at times included close relatives to do drug deliveries. Some of the drugs were delivered in European and Asian countries and the two allegedly required the mules to keep them updated on their movements at all times and once they made the drop-offs they were required to signal them. "They were actively recruiting individuals who they kept track of from the moment they left Kenya until the drug was safely delivered," said the Magistrate. Deep West was reportedly the headquarters of the operations with police claiming as she rose up the ladder of drug traffickers in the country, Akinyi directed her juniors always to use word of mouth to communicate. ALSO READ: Joyce Akinyi: From hotel owner and now convicted heroin trafficker The hotel also provided a good cover to clean the dirty drug money with Akinyi claiming in another case that it brought in Sh1 million daily. After her arrest, the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) filed a case seeking to have her surrender two vehicles valued at Sh20 million for being proceeds of crime. In her defence, she claimed that she had been in the real estate business since 2004, earning her some good income, which explained the continued deposits in her accounts. ARA said that she had been depositing huge amounts of money in tranches below Sh1 million to avoid being flagged by the Central Bank. She claimed the hotel and her other property were worth more than Sh500 million. Justice Esther Maina was unconvinced with her explanation and ordered the forfeiture of the two vehicles to the state. Plea for mercy In their plea for mercy during the sentencing, Akinyi and Kalala presented what they believed were tickets to freedom or even a light sentence. Joyce Teresia Akinyi, once a prominent businesswoman in Kenya, has been convicted for her involvement in a large-scale heroin trafficking operation. [File, Standard] Kalala claimed that his dad died on January 2, 2024, while he was in jail. He said he is from a Christian family and was the second born and their sole breadwinner. He painted a picture of a suffering family from his incarceration, saying that his children have dropped out of school due to lack of school fees. According to Kalala, his engineering career had derailed due to the case and his wife had been impregnated by another man. He expressed remorse and asked to be allowed to serve his sentence in DRC. The queen in Akinyi came out with the probation report painting her as non-remorseful of the crime, and she was instead bitter about the outcome of the case. She claimed that she was suffering from stage 1 cervical cancer, while the probation report said she had stage 2 cancer. Akinyi said that there was no one to take good care of her mentally unstable son and that her daughter had dropped out of school. She said that she had to move houses due to fears for her life and that her 14-year-old son lives with his stepmother due to her incarceration. The drug queen trusted that God would fight for her in the case and alleged that those who arrested her promised she would either die or get jailed. She further claimed that the police planted the drugs on her and that she never committed the crime. Akinyi's valuables claim Shortly after she was jailed for 25 years, Akinyi rose to address Magistrate Njeri Thuku, where she accused the police of taking things from her. She claimed that the police took a Sh1 million chain from her bag, a bangle worth Sh300,000 and earrings worth about Sh200,000, all 24-karat gold. She said she had placed them inside the bag since she was going to the market and was afraid they would be snatched. She also claimed that when the police raided her office at Deep West, they took a MacBook and Dell laptop, all valued at Sh410,000. She added that they also vandalised her CCTV cameras and took with them the storage unit of the footage. According to the drug queen, the police also took two phones from her, adding that she was never given an inventory to sign. She also claimed that when police arrested her last year in Busia while she was on the way to Uganda, they took a phone from her.

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