Jailed in America: Abduba Dida Joins Long List of Kenyan Criminals Facing Incarceration
Drug trafficking, fraud, and immigration violations have led many Kenyans to face incarceration in the United States.
The recent arrest and imprisonment of former presidential candidate Mohamed Abduba Dida have added another Kenyan to the list of those serving time in US prisons.
Dida, a former teacher who ran for president in 2013 and 2017, is currently imprisoned at the Big Muddy Correctional Center in Illinois. He was convicted of stalking and intimidating an unnamed individual.
Sentenced to seven years in 2021, he has already been held in three different correctional facilities.
Notable Kenyan detainees in the US include the Akasha brothers, convicted of drug trafficking and conspiring to use and carry machine guns and destructive devices. They also obstructed justice by bribing Kenyan officials to avoid extradition to the US.
Baktash Akasha received a 25-year prison sentence in 2019, while Ibrahim Akasha was sentenced to 23 years in 2020.
The Akasha brothers were apprehended in Mombasa in November 2014 during a US-led operation involving DEA informants posing as drug traffickers.
They provided the informants with 99 kilograms of heroin and two kilograms of methamphetamine, leading to their arrest.
Extradited to the US in 2017, they were tried in the Southern District of New York. Both brothers pleaded guilty in October 2018, and their plea deals prevent them from appealing their sentences.
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The most severe sentence is that of Brian Musomba Maweu, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for child pornography.
Before his extradition to the US in 2014, Maweu posted 121 messages on Dreamboard, a private online forum promoting pedophilia, including 34 posts with child pornography he produced.
Court documents reveal he was a “Super VIP” member, indicating he created his child pornography.
Kevin Kang’ethe, known for escaping from a police station, is now imprisoned in the US following his extradition two weeks ago.
He faces trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Margaret Mbitu, last year. After fleeing to Kenya, authorities tracked and arrested him.
While at the Muthaiga police station, Kang’ethe escaped under unclear circumstances but was later re-arrested and flown back to the US in an FBI jet. He pleaded not guilty on September 3 and is set for a pre-trial hearing on November 5. He remains in custody without bail.
Recent cases of fraud, including love and investment scams, have also led some Kenyans to prison.
Paul Maucha, 59, was convicted in February of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, deceiving people into paying for loans that his company, American Eagle Services Group (AESG), did not provide.
Maucha promised victims loans in exchange for an advance fee, assuring them the fee would be refundable if the loan was not provided. Evidence showed Maucha, who had lived in the US for 36 years, was spending the fees with his co-conspirator.
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Sentenced in June to 11 years and three months, he must also serve three years of supervised release, pay a $200,000 fine, a $400 special assessment, and make restitution and forfeiture totaling $1,901,252.
Florence Mwende Musau was sentenced last year for her role in a romance scam conspiracy, deceiving victims into sending money to bank accounts she controlled.
Musau used fake passports to open bank accounts where she received money from scams orchestrated by her Nigerian boyfriend, Mark Arome Okuo. Okuo deceived victims by pretending to be a US Army soldier stationed abroad.
Together, they scammed over $1 million from victims. Musau received a sentence of three years and eight months, plus two years and six months of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay approximately $957,000 in restitution and forfeit around $350,000 and a Lexus SUV.
In May 2023, Abdi Hussein Ahmed was sentenced to four years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiring to traffic rhinoceros horn and elephant ivory worth millions of dollars. He was also convicted of conspiring to distribute heroin.
Ahmed and four others poached about 35 rhinoceroses and more than 100 elephants between 2012 and 2019, aiming to sell the horns and ivory valued at nearly $8 million.
In January, Erick Gachuhi Wanjiku, 42, received a three-year federal prison sentence and three years of supervised release for assaulting federal officers.
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On May 8, 2023, while being transferred from an Oklahoma Correctional Facility to an ICE facility in Oklahoma City, Wanjiku kicked one officer and bit another before being restrained. The bite marks were described as “clearly visible and bloody.”
In 2018, 67 Kenyans were detained in the US for immigration and customs violations, according to ICE data.
In 2015, former President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the Transfer of Prisoners Act, aimed at facilitating the transfer of individuals serving sentences for crimes committed in Kenya or abroad. It remains unclear if any prisoners have been transferred under this Act.
Jailed in America: Abduba Dida Joins Long List of Kenyan Criminals Facing Incarceration
