Traffickers' drugs haven in Kenya

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Tuesday, 9 May 2006, 13:38 GMT 14:38 UK

Traffickers' drugs haven in Kenya
By Karen Allen
BBC News, Mombasa

The Kenyan sea port of Mombasa, one of East Africa's
busiest, is now seen as a key staging post in the
international drugs trail.

Overlooking the coast, shaded by a tree, I met Abbas
injecting himself with heroin.
Once a bus conductor with a couple of kids, he has been
hooked on the drug for the past six years.
Dealers target addicts like him, but the real money is
being made shifting drugs overseas. Abbas explains how it
works.
"They go to Karachi, Pakistan. They take it and bring it to
Kenya," he says.
"Then they take it from Kenya to Kampala [in Uganda]; they
take it to other countries."
The fact that Kenya is grappling with two simultaneous
challenges - a growing indigenous drug problem and high
levels of corruption - make it a convenient transit and
storage point for international drug cartels.
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No convictions
According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime,
heroin seizures have doubled in Kenya in the past five
years.
Murad Saad works with addicts and says the police turn a
blind eye to dealing on the street so why should it be any
different for drugs just passing through?
"They know who these people are, yet we don't seem to see
any changes. Even if they do make an arrest, within a day
the person is already out because he's posted bail and if
he ever gets to go to court, he also gets out," he says.
"We've not seen any tangible convictions or anything really
tangible being done. "
The problem started back in the 1980s with heroin being
brought onto Kenya's shores.
Now, the narcotics gangs have used the same tricks to
traffic cocaine.
December 2004 saw the biggest ever seizure of the drug -
1.1 metric tons, equivalent to $90m - a little further up
the coast, in Malindi.
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Mules
But the very size of it clearly showed that it was not
destined for Kenya, but for other, more lucrative, markets
overseas.

The drug was destroyed in a very public display back in
February.
Since then, there have been a number of drug seizures,
including $600,000 worth of cocaine, detected at Nairobi's
main airport recently.
So, do senior police officers accept that Kenya is now an
established transit point for drugs, fuelled by corruption?
"We cannot be blind to the fact that we have a very poor
record. Law enforcement is very thin on the ground," says
Gideon Kibunja, spokesman for Kenya Police.
"At the same time, it is admittable, although it's
regrettable, that there is quite a bit of corruption in the
country and efforts to try and stamp it out are going on."
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Mules
It is something that worries Titus Naikuni, chief executive
of Kenya Airways.

His airline crews have been amongst those used as drug
mules.
Five of his staff have been arrested over the past year,
trying to bring narcotics into Europe.
With extra security measures now in place, he says his
employees are aware that international drug cartels are now
targeting them.
"I am seeing the realisation by staff that it is dangerous
to get involved with drug trafficking," Mr Naikuni says.
"Unfortunately, there are a few who are already hooked into
it and maybe they might not be able to get out of it, but
we are tracking them."
Poverty, corruption and geography all conspire to make
Kenya an attractive transit and storage point for drugs,
but so too does a lack of awareness about the home-grown
drugs problem.
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'National disaster'
Historically, drugs intended for overseas have spilled onto
the local market, fuelling demand.
Dennis Wachira Heineman, who runs an addiction clinic, says
there is still naivety about drug use in Kenya -
particularly worrying when injecting drug use is on the
rise.
He blames the authorities for being slow to grasp the
problem and wants to view to the situation as a national
disaster.
"That means creating awareness to the public, tightening up
the court system in terms of one recognising who is an
addict, who's a dealer; giving stiff sentences to the
dealers and helping to treat the people who are addicts,"
he says.
Although compared to richer countries, drug use in Kenya is
relatively low, less than 0.5% of the population, there is
a sense that with more narcotics seeping in, and a
continued climate of corruption, that could rise.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Nice article