Joyce Akinyi Ochieng, one of Kenya’s most high-profile drug traffickers, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The ruling was made on Thursday at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport court, where she was also fined Sh9 million after being found guilty of trafficking heroin valued at Sh5 million.
Akinyi, a mother of four, was a prominent figure in Nairobi’s dark underworld. She was convicted alongside her Congolese lover, Paulin Kalala, who received a 10-year sentence and a Sh9 million fine. Kalala’s sentence was reduced by five years and six months due to time already served in custody since the trial began in July 2019.
If they fail to pay the fines, both Akinyi and Kalala will serve an additional year in jail. However, since their sentences run concurrently, time already served will count toward the total.
A third co-accused, Peres Anyango, was sentenced in absentia after she failed to attend court since December 2023. A warrant of arrest has been issued for her, and Senior Principal Magistrate Njeri Thuku noted that Anyango might be using an alias.
“During the course of the trial, specifically after the court delivered a ruling that all three had a case to answer, Peres stopped coming to court,” said Magistrate Thuku. “Joyce [Akinyi] and Peres [Anyango], prior to their arrest, were at the top of the drug trafficking chain; essentially, they were drug barons.”
Magistrate Thuku also mentioned that Akinyi and Anyango had international links to suppliers and used mules for transportation. She ordered the surrender of Akinyi’s two Congolese passports, which were issued under different names, to DRC authorities.
Kalala was described as “his own victim” for choosing to be in a relationship with Akinyi, with the magistrate adding, “The two had international links that they used to import the drugs from specific suppliers, and they had mules for transportation as well as regular customers.”
In the case of Anyango, police found heroin in her bag during her arrest, which was in an office owned by Akinyi, who was found with Kalala. The court heard that Akinyi’s entry into the drug trade was influenced by her husband Antony Chinedu, whom she met in 1998. The couple became major players in the drug trade, recruiting young people to help move drugs.
Their empire grew, but authorities began to take notice. The couple eventually split, with their highly publicized divorce in 2009 revealing the depths of their criminal operations.
Akinyi had been arrested before. In 2008, she and former Budalangi MP Raphael Wanjala were detained in New Delhi, India, for carrying undeclared Sh7.59 million. In 2013, the couple was arrested again on the Nairobi-Namanga highway after police found a suspicious white powder. They claimed it was maize flour, but police suspected otherwise, though the couple was released.
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