Three kilograms of cocaine worth nearly Sh18 million were discovered in a Thai woman's suitcase after her detention on Thursday night at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
The woman was stopped by the Anti Narcotics Unit police as she was traveling from Doha to Singapore.
When authorities discovered her suitcase, it included two packages of whitish powder that were subsequently determined to be cocaine. She was about to board a Qatar aircraft.
Police said the substance had been concealed in the false bottom of her suitcase at the time of the seizure.
She was detained ahead of further interrogation and arraignment, said head of ANU Margret Karanja.
This is the latest seizure of narcotics in the country in a renewed campaign against trafficking and consumption.
The seizure, according to police, indicates the drugs had arrived in Nairobi for repackaging before they were exported.
It came days after seven suspects were arrested by police and cocaine valued at Sh96.3 million recovered from them in Nairobi.
Also recovered was 1.2 tons of ketamine valued at Sh25 million, police said.
Director of Directorate of Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin termed the arrests and recovery a major breakthrough in the war on drug trafficking and consumption.
He said the cocaine weighed 24 kilograms and had been packaged as avocados when the cargo was intercepted along Wangari Maathai Road on June 17.
The cargo was headed for Jomo Kenyatta International to be flown out of the country as an avocado cargo.
In 2019, the then European Union Ambassador to Kenya Simon Mordue said the Kenyan port of Mombasa accounted for 30 per cent of illegal heroin smuggled into the EU market.
Kenyan security agencies seized the second-biggest haul of cocaine weighing 100 kilos and valued at Sh598 million in 2016 in Mombasa, which was disguised as sugar.
