MALABA, Kenya – Detectives have arrested a bus turn boy and launched a search for two other crew members after allegedly recovering cocaine worth Sh2.19 million from a passenger bus undergoing screening at the Malaba One-Stop Border Post.
According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the consignment was discovered aboard a Simba Coach bus, registration number KDG 093H, travelling from Kampala to Nairobi.
The discovery reportedly began when officers conducting routine screening found an unattended parcel inside the bus, prompting further examination.
The DCI said the driver and conductor subsequently left the scene, abandoning the vehicle and its passengers as officers focused on the suspicious package.
Detectives from the National Anti-Narcotics Investigations Bureau (NANIB), based in Malaba, took over the recovered consignment for further processing.
Preliminary tests indicated that the substance was cocaine. It was reportedly packed into eight pellets weighing a combined 547.99 grammes, with an estimated street value of Sh2,191,960.
The bus’s turn boy, identified by the DCI as Meshack Medalack, was arrested in connection with the incident.
Detectives are pursuing the driver, identified as Karama, and the conductor, named John Musimbi, as investigations seek to establish how the drugs came to be on board and whether other individuals were involved.
The bus remained detained at the border post while its management arranged alternative transport for passengers affected by the incident.
The investigation places scrutiny on the movement of suspected narcotics through a major crossing on the Kenya-Uganda transport corridor. However, the circumstances surrounding the parcel’s presence on the bus and the alleged roles of the crew members have yet to be established publicly.
The DCI said its anti-narcotics investigators were continuing with the operation.
The suspects’ alleged involvement remains subject to investigation, and any criminal liability would have to be determined through the legal process.
