Driver abandons nuns, car full of weed

A Kenyan driver has put himself smack dab in the middle of an unholy mess after failing to stop for a police check and later fleeing the scene, leaving his passengers, including three Catholic missionaries on their way to a convent, to explain if they had anything to do with the cannabis onboard.

Cannabis is illegal in Kenya.

On Tuesday night, detectives with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations' (DCI) Langata division had earlier directed the vehicle to stop, but the driver failed to comply.

This sparked a high-speed chase “that left the three missionaries silently reciting their rosaries and meditating the sacred mysteries,” the DCI Facebook post notes. The chase ended when detectives travelling in a Subaru hatchback caught up with the fleeing “jalopy” as they approached the Kabage area and the driver bolted, disappearing “into the darkness.”

The abandoned vehicle carrying four occupants was searched and detectives found it was “loaded with a consignment of cannabis sativa,” notes the DCI.

Concealed in 13 bales, “the consignment and three jerry cans (steel liquid containers) with 35 litres of locally distilled Chang'aa brew were recovered.” Chang'aa is a potent, fermented drink that is popular in Kenya.

To be clear, the nuns from the Benedictine Sisters had nothing to do with the illicit cargo. “The visibly shaken nuns were not connected to the consignment since they had boarded the vehicle as passengers, headed to a convent in Karen,” the DCI reports.

The nuns had boarded at Malaba on the Kenya-uganda border and were about to be dropped off in Karen when the detectives flagged down the vehicle.

A manhunt for the suspect is ongoing.