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Kenya: Report On Drugs Alarming
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The Nation (Nairobi)
EDITORIAL
3 July 2008
Posted to the web 3 July 2008
Nairobi
Parliament must move with haste to enact the pending Anti-Narcotics Bill to save Kenya's youths from being ensnared by drug barons.
Reports that Kenya is increasingly becoming a popular transit route for drugs is quite alarming. But this is not news. The country became popular with these merchants of death two decades ago due to its lax anti-narcotics laws.
What is most distressing is the revelation that drug abuse in Kenya has increased by one percentage point in the last one year. But even more alarming is that a greater number of Kenyans, especially women, are being used as mules by West African drug lords. This could mean a few things.
One, Kenyans are becoming more daring given the harsh punishment often meted out on those found with drugs. Secondly, drug operators are becoming too sophisticated for our anti-narcotics agents, or three, the agents are being compromised.
These are issues that Kenyans must explore with all seriousness if the country is to safeguard the future of its youth.
Besides the rise in hard drug use in Kenya, an increasing number of Kenyans are languishing in foreign jails, having been caught with drugs.
Kenyan authorities should take seriously the recent disclosure by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime that there has been a major shift in cocaine smuggling routes due to increased demand in Europe.
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At the same time, the report says, Europe is adopting more stringent policing measures, forcing the drug smugglers to shift base to West Africa. What is our Government doing?
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