Pubdate: Tue, 30 Mar 2004
Source: East African Standard, The (Kenya)
Copyright: 2004 The East African Standard
Contact:  http://www.eastandard.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1743
Author: Daniel Nyassy

THE EXPLOSIVE MIX OF DRUGS, SEX AND CASH

Nairobi -- There are 10,000 drug addicts in the Coast Province, while 760 
fresh ones get hooked every year.

A one-day workshop at the Coast General Hospital was told that about 50 per 
cent of these are men in the Old Town who are married but engage in 
homosexuality with rich businessmen to earn cash to buy the drugs.

Mombasa Island leads in the number of addicts with about 5,000. The others 
are spread between Lunga Lunga in the South and Pate Island in the North.

A researcher, Mr Murad Saad, who is in charge of Reachout Rehabilitation 
Centre in Mtwapa, said results from several research projects indicate 
overwhelming evidence of a massive drug abuse in the Coast.

Participants at the workshop, organised by Reachout Rehabilitation Centre 
and the Coast General Hospital, were drawn from the civil society, NGOs and 
institutions.

Majority of both male and female addicts inject themselves with the drugs. 
Other methods of taking it, which are fading away, are sniffing, cocktail 
and smoking, the workshop heard.

About 95 per cent of the female cocaine addicts are commercial sex workers. 
Between 45 and 50 per cent of them are HIV/Aids positive, the workshop heard.

Areas identified as high user zones in Mombasa are Kibokoni in the Old 
Town, Majengo-King'orani, Shanzu/Mtwapa areas, Likoni and around the beaches.

Others high user towns are Diani and Ukunda in the South Coast, some parts 
of Kilifi, Watamu, Malindi and Lamu.

But the sad thing is that police have almost completely neglected the Pate 
Island problem, where there is no electricity, water or any type of modern 
communication or essential service, the seminar was told.

"Our research at Pate Island in Lamu, which has a population of 2,000 
people, shows that more than 55 per cent of the youth - who form 50 per 
cent of the population - are cocaine addicts," Saad said.

And the man in-charge of drug rehabilitation programmes in the Ministry of 
Health, Dr Robert Ayisi, from the National Aids Control Programme described 
the problem as "very grave".

"We have started sensitising the public after realising the problem is so 
big. The Government wants to consolidate the drug use versus HIV/Aids 
spread in its programmes," said Dr Ayisi.

Saad said the use of a single needle by addicts had led to a fast spread of 
HIV/Aids.

He said negotiations with religious organisations and other stakeholders 
were ongoing to start a needle exchange programme, where users would be 
encouraged to surrender their old needles for new ones free of charge at a 
centre to be established at Kibokoni.

In a similar development, the Coast General Hospital chief administrator, 
Dr Khadija Shikelly, said 6,000 Aids patients were earmarked for free 
anti-retroviral drugs in the province.

The programme, to be funded by USAid, will run between now and 2005.