/CORRECTION*/ DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: Strategy for Fighting Drugs Described as Fragmented

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Mar 5 2004 (IPS) - An anti-drug organisation in Kenya has called for improved cooperation between law enforcement officials to combat the drug trade in the East African country.

Joseph Kaguthi, Coordinator of the National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA), says “At the moment, the concerned bodies are working in isolation. The police force has its own anti-narcotics department, which is only dealing with hard drugs such as heroin (and) cocaine – It does not deal with glue sniffing – and alcohol.”

“What we require now is for law enforcers and (other) sectors to collaborate and focus on drug supply and distribution chains,” he added.

Community involvement was also deemed important. “We need law enforcement systems which will mobilise communities to participate in anti-drug campaigns by reporting drug abuse cases, identifying drug barons at micro-level, and identifying drug dens,” said Kaguthi.

“However, a lot of security must be guaranteed because this is a risky operation.”

The NACADA Coordinator told IPS that his organisation was in the process of compiling the latest statistics about the extent of drug abuse in Kenya. A 1998 study carried out by the Child Welfare Association, however, found that one in every 15 Kenyan students took drugs.

Alcohol and cannabis appear to the substances of choice for teenagers. “Later, they graduate to heroin and cocaine,” says Frank Njenga, a Nairobi-based psychiatrist who assists addicts.

These drugs find their way into Kenya in part because the country is an important transit point for narcotics. According to Gideon Kibunja, Public Relations Officer for the Criminal Investigations Department, drugs from West Africa and Pakistan are brought through Kenya en route to Europe and other destinations.

A 2002 report by the United Nations International Drug Control Programme noted that the Kenyan port of Mombasa was one of four on the continent that had become major centres for drug trafficking in Africa. Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, the Mozambican capital, Maputo, and the South African city of Durban were also named. Analysts say that if this trend continues, Kenya might well find itself labelled a “narco state” in years to come.

Government counters this claim by pointing to the fact that it has beefed up security and installed drug detection devices at air and sea ports, as well as at border crossings. Officials say the decline in cases related to the trafficking of cocaine, heroin and other drugs shows these efforts are bearing fruit. Kibunja told IPS that 3939 such cases were recorded in 2001, while there were 3,410 in 2002, and 363 in 2003.

In 2000, authorities announced that they would introduce aerial spraying of cannabis plantations across the country to eliminate them. This proposal drew fire from environmentalists who said the move would pose dangers for other parts of Kenya’s ecosystem.

A report launched in the country on Wednesday (Mar. 3) by the Vienna- based International Narcotics Control Board also noted that curbing drug abuse was key to maintaining general levels of security, as drug addicts often turned to crime in order to finance their habits.

If the experience of other states is anything to go by, however, efforts to bring the drug trade in Kenya under control will not succeed while the demand for narcotics persists. “The country has had to put up with these crimes just because we are not effectively attacking the root cause, which is drug abuse,” observes Kaguthi.

Facilities required to tackle abuse are pitifully thin on the ground in Kenya. At present, there is not a single state-owned drug rehabilitation centre in the country, something that has dire implications for those who are not wealthy enough to seek private care.

Drug abusers are often taken to mental health facilities that lack the expertise needed to treat addiction. “One cannot take a heroin addict to a mental hospital. This is being naïve. Addicts need facilities adequately addressing their problems,” says Kaguthi.

“Government must come up with drug rehabilitation centres for their citizens, with subsidized costs,” he adds.

Pressure is now building for authorities to implement the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act, which makes provision for the establishment of public facilities to help addicts recover.

(* ATTN EDITORS: The version of this story moved 21:47 GMT Mar. 5, 2004 contained an error in par. 12. Please note that the International Narcotics Control Board is based in Vienna.)