Gustavo de Jesús Gaviria Rivero was the cousin of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.
Kabogo took to his social media account to post a picture of himself with Mombasa governor when he paid him a Courtesy call.
Kenyans however took to social media to flash back on when the two ever came to light and linked them to some alleged crimes.
A report issued in 2010 by the U.S. Embassy in Kenya and cited in Parliament by then Internal Security Minister George Saitoti says that MPs Joho, William Kabogo, John Harun Mwau, Gideon Mbuvi and Mombasa tycoon Ali Punjani, are among the most dangerous drug traffickers in the country. The document is also signed by then U.S. ambassador Michael Ranneberger.
The report describes how Abubakar Joho and his brother Ali Hassan are in charge of a multi-million euro trafficking empire.
Abubarak is the first one of the two to enter the drug trade. In the early ‘90s he begins working in a clearing and forwarding company and later finds a new position in the vehicles business. Once he finds out the owner of the company had died during the Rwanda genocide he decides to take over and starts diverting vehicles destined to Rwanda into the Kenyan market. But vehicles soon become less lucrative.
Gustavo and Escobar discussing who shall meet the Govt pic.twitter.com/BUEC1mG6nY
— Martoh Muriithi (@Martoh_Muriithi) January 29, 2019
His guts tell him to move on to more profitable business, the one flourishing in and around the port of Mombasa. Here he finds employment in a company that clears container from ships to the quay, and vice-versa. According to the U.S. report, Abubakar Joho „was the clearing agent for containers that held one ton of cocaine in 2004“.
The influence of Abubakar on Ali Hassan is the one typical of an elder brother towards his younger. According to the American document, it was Abubakar who insisted and convinced Ali Hassan to enter politics. And so he does.
A young Ali Hassan Joho runs and wins the 2007 elections as a representative of the Mombasa region in the national parliament. Shortly after, the report suggests, his career in the drug trade begins.
The report reads that the political campaign that grants him the regional political seat was founded by Swaleh Kandereni, Billy Mahandi and Swaleh Ahmed who are all arrested in Mombasa under drug trafficking charges in 2010. According to the American document, Kandereni allegedly was a major supplier to dealers in the coastal town of Malindi. Another of Joho’s influencial campaigner „was suspected narcotics trafficker Ali Punjabi“, the report reads.
It is since 2010 that the Kenyan Anti Narcotics Unit suspects Ali Hassan Joho to be involved in the narcotics trade. The report fails in providing more details on such claim. Due to Joho’s „political position and financial resources it is unclear what [Kenyan] police intended to do with evidence“, the report ends.
Ali Hassan Joho is elected as governor of the Mombasa county on March 4, 2013.
Together the brothers own Prima Bins & Pest Control, an import-export company in charge of waste management and rat- killing, based in Mama Ngina Drive, Mombasa. It is through their company that the pair move drugs across Kenya. U.S. officials also identify Israeli company Amiran Kenya Ltd, owned by Israeli businessman Andy, as a crucial actor in the criminal network.
Andy appears closely connected with a Mombasa-based man, nicknamed Adamo, one of Joho’s trusted operators. The American report insists that both Mwau and Johos have own companies based at the Kilindi port, in Mombasa, where the cargo seized in December 2004 was heading: “Some of the cocaine [from the 2004 haul] had been stored at the Pepe Container Freight Station CFS, a facility owned by Mr Harun Mwau”.
Ali Hassan Joho also appears as a close acquaintance to Mary Wambui, activist and among the fiercest promoters of former president Kibaki’s political campaign. Wambui, after being Kibaki’s personal counsellor, took his parliamentary seat in 2013. According to the U.S. report, Wambui met often with Hassan and promoted his candidacy for a seat in the regional parliament of Kisauni in 2007.
Can the government take any action on Joho and Kabogo