20101223
africanews

Six members of the Kenyan parliament and a business man have been named as having links to drug trade, according to the Minister of Internal Security.

The naming of the six came on the heels of a travel ban by the US government on six suspected drug dealing individuals. The members include Assistant Minister of Trade John Harun Mwau who is also a sitting MP, Messrs William Kabogo, Mike Gidion Mbuvi, Ali Hassan Joho, Eugene Wamalwa and Simon Mbugua. Also mentioned is the Mombasa-based tycoon Ali Punjani.

A few months ago, the US ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger had disclosed that his government had banned several high profile individuals from visiting the US on the grounds of their involvement in drug trafficking. However, he did not mention the names of the said individuals, only intimating that some of them included sitting MPs and an assistant minister.

There have been whispers on the Kenyan streets amongst civilinas on the involvement of some of the mentioned MPs in drug trade.

The disclosure of the names was informed by complains by Mr Mike Mbuvi that he was being harrassed by police officers. The MP had complained on the floor of the house that police officers had continuously harrassed him for reasons he was not aware of and called on the Speaker of the National Assembly to ask the Internal Security Minister to state on the floor of the house the reason why he was being harassed.

Most of the named MPs walked out of the house, except Ali Hassan Joho, who retorted after rasing on a point of order, "I am saddened that the minister (Saitoti) can take this matter lightly and mention names in this House. I don’t need any favours. I don’t need to be assisted. I just want full force of [the] law to be applied even to myself".