JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
On or about 9th September, 1998 cargo consisting of six cartons arrived at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (J.K.I.A) Cargo section, on an Emirate Airline Flight from Kabul, Afghanistan. The Airway-Bill accompanying the cargo clearly indicated that the consignee of the cargo was one Poltical Mewa and the contents were some five hundred pieces of towels with a declared value of $1500.
On 14th September, 1998 Yusuf Abdala Ibrahim Abdi showed up at the office of Livingstone Ruto, the officer-in-charge of security at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport seeking his assistance to have the cargo cleared.
This happened to have been immediately after the bomb blast in Nairobi in which a lot of people had perished. The origin of the cargo roused Ruto's suspicion and he instructed the customs officials to verify the cargo very carefully. In the process of clearing and the verification of the goods, the customs officials of the Kenya Revenue Authority and the police attached…