Breaking News: Gambia: INSIDE KANILAI—AN INVESTIGATOR’S DIARY PART ONE!
INSIDE KANILAI—AN INVESTIGATOR’S DIARY PART ONE!
As
the march towards Gambia’s liberation is imminent, an undercover
investigator on assignment to trail the physical structure of President
Yahya Jammeh’s Kanilai palace, his key security instillations in
Kanilai, including assets, and other secret clandestine criminal
activities perpetrated at the villa, a disturbing investigative report
is being declassified for the world to have a better understanding about
the Jammeh secret Kanilai
empire before his inevitable fall. The report is well researched, and in
some occasions “subjects” at the Kanilai Manson had “one, and one” interview with the investigator. Even
if Mr. Jammeh changes his guards that wouldn't save him from the
inevitable power shift that’s about to hit this nation. He is being
trailed. It’s a matter of time for Jammeh to taste his own evil
medicine. Below is the investigative report compiled by the special
investigator on assignment.
…………………………………………………………………………………
Kanilai
is situated near neighboring Casamance Senegal. It’s a border village.
Kanilai is less than 500 meters from the Senegalese/Gambian border. When
traveling from the Capital City Banjul, there is a checkpoint along the
road at Kanfinda. It’s situated along the trans-Gambia high way. There
is a Police, Immigration, and Soldiers checkpoint at Kanfinda. This is the road that branches off to the President’s home villa Kanilai.
From Kanfinda to Kanilai, it is estimated to be between 7 to 8 miles (kilometers drive). The President seizes the verse land that stretches to his native home Kanilai, shortly after taking power
from deposed President Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara. He has put a tall
“Babuwire” fence at the said land, which he now transformed as an
agricultural farm.
Security agencies, civil servants, and foreigners occasionally work at the President’s farm. The length of the farm is 8 kilometer. It’s a huge farmland.
After
4 to 5 kilometers drive from Kanfinda, on the left hand side, Mr.
Jammeh is building an Housing Estate. You drive for another 3
kilometers, there is a fire service station on the right hand side of
the road. On the left hand side,
just adjacent the Kanilai fire station, there is a medical clinic built
there. The clinic is two story building.
Also adjacent to the fire station, is the newly built President Jammeh’s Science, and Technology Foundation Research Center. The
so called scientific center could be another decoy to hide Jammeh’s
arms trafficking. His hands are into gun running. He has also been
accused of drug trafficking, according to a former police chief who was
recently jailed for life imprisonment for having smeared the President's
image.
After the clinic, you will drive for few minutes before reaching David Colley’s house on the right hand side of the road. Mr. Colley, is the Director General of Gambia’s Prison Services.
After passing David’s house, there is a T Junction. At
the T Junction, you turn on the left, and there is a Lower Basic
Secondary School ( primary, and junior secondary). The school is just
opposite the main Kanilai mosque. The Imam of the mosque is one Fulla man. There are four to five big trees there.
From the school, you then drive towards the Kanilai palace, which is called the State House. On the way, there is a playing ground (football field).
On the same road, looking on my left hand side, I saw couple of business shops. There are three big Mauritanian shops in the area. There is also a Senegalese Fashion Shop on the same building. It’s a line house.
In that particular property, it also houses the NIA agents posted at Kanilai. The NIA had been allocated with two bed rooms. Two rooms, and a sitting room. And they also use the room for office work. Suspects arrested during festivals, and meetings are usually processed there.
Opposite
the NIA residential home ( office), there is a garage. Vehicles plying
from Foni, casamance, Kombo, buses, and horse carts normally parked
there including the ones from Casamance. The Casamance natives usually
do their shopping in Kanilai. There is sugar, rice, oil, onions, milk, attaya, etc on sale in Kanilai.
The family home of Benedict Jammeh, the current Director General of the National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDEA) is opposite the NIA residential home.
After passing the NIA residence, there is a hotel on the left hand side called the Sindola hotel. Opposite
Sindola, on the right hand side, there are couple of houses built
there, which is normally used to lodge guests during festivals. Some of these guests are from Guinea Bissau, Casamance, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and elsewhere across Africa.
Immediately, after passing the Sindola hotel, you will now enter Jammeh’s palace. Before entering the palace, there is a mini stadium (play ground) in the area. The stadium is being used for wrestling contest, musical jamboree, among other entertainment festivities. The mini stadium is situated right at the entrance of the Kanilai palace. There is a sentry checkpoint at the entrance, with an arch monument like the one at the July 22nd
square in Banjul. There is a slight difference compared to the arch
built in Banjul. There is no human face on the Kanilai arch.
On the left hand side after the palace’s main gate, dictator Jammeh is building a multimillion dollars recording studio there. Opposite the new recording studio, there is a carpentry workshop
(Factory) in the area. At this workshop, timbers transported from
Casamance are being processed there for sale. A huge amount of money is
being generated from the Casamance timber sale.
Besides, the carpentry shop, there is also a mighty store,
in which Mr. Jammeh uses to park his cars, and sponges. He also uses
the confiscated property belonging to Banta Kaira, and was sold to Baba
Kajali Jobe, situated in Kanifing to store cars there, but once there is
a rice consignment the vehicles are usually moved from the warehouse.
After
one minute drive from the recording studio, when you make a glance on
your left hand side, you will see the commander’s office there. I mean the commander of the Kanilai Battalion.
Next to the commander’s office, there is an armored car
station. It’s covered by a “parala” heavy plastic to prevent visitors
from seeing it. These are pickup trucks they use for assault operations.
There
is also an old “Saradehcomba” armored tank machine gun opposite the
armored car station. The armored tank is facing Casamance, but it is
not functional. In short, it’s not working. It used to be operated by Colonel “Bombaredeh” Kawsu Camara, when it newly came to Kanilai. Mr. Camara, has special training on heavy weaponry operations.
There is a guardroom, in which soldiers on duty usually sleep after mounting sentry. This facility is right besides the kitchen. It is next to the old armored tank.
Opposite the Commander’s office, the road is kind of divided. It’s in the form of a V shape. There is another sentry there, with a tall building. The guard is normally positioned on top of the building like a sniper who scans the area in search of potential enemies.
Right behind the second sentry
station, with the tall building, there is a family home called the
Jammeh Kunda. In that property, there is a four storey building there as
well. Mr. Jammeh’s family (including his elder brother Jalamang Jammeh) resides there. It used to be a small hut, and was abandoned by the family prior to Jammeh toppling the 30 years PPP regime. Jalamang, was the only one living in that one time hut. But it has now been upgraded from a hut to a four deck storey building house. It’s a manson.
At the same location, there is another three story building, which houses senior Kanilai plain clothe guards. All these outlets are situated right at the V shape intersection. There is also a big fence at the Jammeh Kunda, and security residence. Both properties had been fenced.
There
is a small road bordering the Jammeh kunda home, and that of the
security’s residence. The President’s palace (home) is situated right
opposite the three storey building that houses his guards.
On
the left hand side of Jammeh’s palace, there is a big tree there. He
occasionally relaxes there, and often entertained by his own ethnic
group cultural musicians, including the Wonnie sisters dance group, and
the Green boys. These people are good at “Bukarabou” dance. Jammeh spent hours watching the Bukarabou dancers.
Back
to the Commander’s office, on the right hand side, there is a building
that houses Mr. Jammeh’s thugs called the Jungullars. There is a “Babuwire” demarcation fence between President Jammeh’s palace and the jungullar’s residence. The jungullars are very close to his house.
Right behind Jammeh’s home, there is a zoo. At the said zoo, there is a heavily built lion. Also
behind the zoo, there is a palm tree farm belonging to President
Jammeh. There is also a rice field behind the palm tree farm.
On the left hand side of the rice field, there is an Housing Estate there owned by Jammeh. It’s estimated that there is between 25 t0 50 houses built on the property.
On the same premises, there are snakes in one of the houses. A Jungullar who goes by the name Alfou,
a native of Basse, in the Upper Region of The Gambia, has been assigned
by the President to watch the snakes. He has been allocated with a
motorbike.
At
the same location, there is a big crocodile pond. The Basse native
turned Jungullar has been assigned by Jammeh to oversee the crocodile
pond.
There
is a back way from the crocodiles pond going towards the commander’s
office. On your right hand side, there is another housing facility.
There is a sentry man at the entrance. There is also another sentry man
right inside before the main building. Mr. Jammeh usually rest in one
of the rooms there (location withheld) until further notice. In fact,
the former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo was hosted there during his visit to Banjul.
It’s imperative to note that this particular location is a restricted area. One must have security clearance before he, or she can step his foot there. Very few people had access to the facility. It’s well guarded by soldiers.
Although,
the irony surrounding this particular housing facility is that even the
soldiers stationed there cannot explain why they are posted there in
the first place. In frank, and simple language, they do not have a clue about their line of security assignment—besides being told, or instructed to restrict access in the area.
It’s
rumoured in security circles here that some missing Gambians might be
kept there—which is very unlikely given the dictator’s "secrecy"
culture. It might as well be some sort of an armory storage facility. It’s only the dictator, and his trusted lieutenants who knows what is in that facility
In the outskirt of Jammeh’s rice
field, there is a so called water factory which was built there two
years ago. There is a growing suspicion among security operatives in
Kanilai that this could be a decoy to fake the situation. It’s suspected
that there is an armory in the area. But time will tell!
After
passing President Jammeh’s palace, I was taken to a residential area
called Sanyangkunda, widely known as “Wonie.” There is a sentry man posted right behind Wonie. One of the sentry men I met in this location, do not look like a Gambian—perhaps he is a Casamance native.
Right
behind Wonie, there is a big animal zoo outlet. At this location, you
will find Zebras, a crocodile pond, hyenas, Buffalos, camels, and other
creatures. There is also a big bird behind the President’s own palace.
Right
opposite Jammeh Kunda, there is a storey building there. The building
is opposite the NIA residence, and his camel watcher from Guinea Conakry is residing there. The
Guinean has been hired to oversee President Jammeh’s camels. Jammeh’s
HIV patients are hosted there in the same area. The Green Boys quarters
is also located there.
Behind the aids patients building, there is a big cassava plantation farm belonging to Jammeh. Other harps are also planted there which he Jammeh uses to treat his patients. There is also a crocodile, and fish pond in the same area. Look out for part two of the Kanilai diary.