Nairobi -- Ibrahim Akasha is perhaps the biggest name to come out of Mombasa as an international drug dealer. Five years after his death, new drug lords said to be handling a narcotic load that makes Mombasa probably the most drugged town in Kenya are following his footsteps. And one of the major ones in the coastal town is a Tanzanian woman who lives in a palatial, heavily fortified house in Likoni. Even the police dread her name, yet few people really know the shadowy figure operating in the underworld. [continues 692 words]
Nairobi -- A casual observer looking down Kuze Street in Mombasa's Old Town will notice groups of youths lazing idly at corners. But one will hardly suspect that these are drug peddlers and addicts. According to authorities and community social workers, Mombasa's Old Town has the largest number of drug peddlers and addicts of all the country's urban centres. A labyrinth of narrow streets that define the Old Town make concealment easy, the perfect environment for narcotics peddlers and addicts. [continues 677 words]
Nairobi An ex-prisoner yesterday told of a harrowing life of misery, homosexuality and drug abuse at the Shimo La Tewa prison. Odhiambo Migot, who was released last week after serving seven months in the remand prison, described the prison as a veritable hell-hole where prisoners are forced into homosexuality, bhang is smoked liberally and where their lives are endangered by gangs who operate in cahoots with the prison warders. Hard drugs are freely available and bootleg, of the kumi kumi variety, is drunk in the jail, "just like in a bar." [continues 246 words]
