Court Rejects Bid to Drop Cocaine Case

Nairobi Star (Nairobi)

Roy Agoya

17 June 2011

A bid by police to drop a Sh12 million cocaine case against a Nairobi businesswoman was rejected in court yesterday. The prosecution was overruled on substituting charges of drug traffcking with a lesser one of posession of a poisonous substance.

An affidavit sworn stating the substance recovered from the suspect was not cocaine, as was ealier believed, was thrown out on the grounds the police officer purporting to swear it was not its author.

The prosecution wanted Gladys Auma Bwire to be charged under the Pharmacy and Poisons Act instead of the Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances Act, as had been done after her arrest at the JKIA on June 10. She has been in custody on the request of the police for completion of investigations.

Yesterday, an anti narcotics officer told the court they have since established that the powdery substance which was taken to a government analyst is not cocaine. Kibera senior principal magistrate Grace Nzioka said the affidavit had been improperly constituted as the person purporting to swear had failed the test of the law that governs affidavits.

Bwire has been taken back into custody and appears in court today for a ruling on bond terms for the offence of drug trafficking. Court heard the substance had been analysed and found to be crystallised Hydrochloride categorized as a Part 1 poison under the Pharmacy and Posions Act and in the circumstances the anti-narcotics chief had requested the court to transfer Bwire’s file to the “petty crimes registry.”

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