Nairobi - If National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse boss Joseph Kaguthi is to be believed, the Ministry of Health has been remarkably lax in setting up rehabilitation centres. And this despite growing evidence that drug abuse has taken root in society. It used to be that young people, especially schoolchildren, would surreptitiously drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes as they tried to deal with the challenges of adolescence. But while these still remain a serious problem, abusers are moving on to ever more sophisticated drugs - cocaine, heroin and mandrax, according to Mr Kaguthi. [continues 248 words]
Nairobi - Murdered drug dealer Ibrahim Akasha was closely linked with former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, a tribunal heard. Mr Akasha's former househelp and driver, Mr Festus M'Buri, said the then President was the only person associated with Mr Akasha in Zambia. The alleged relationship dated back to early 1990's when Mr Akasha carried out transport business from Tanzania to Zambia. The business was later linked to drug trafficking. Mr M'Buri told the tribunal inquiring into the conduct of suspended Appeal Court judge Philip Waki that, Mr Akasha occasionally visited President Kaunda at State House in Zambia. [continues 282 words]
Nairobi Consumption of cocaine, heroine and mandrax has increased in Kenya. "Matters have been worsened by failure by the Ministry of Health to put up rehabilitation centres as stipulated by section 52 of the Drug and Substance Abuse Act of 1994, National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse chairman Joseph Kaguthi said. Mr Kaguthi claimed the ministry did not even prepare any guidelines or standards as required by the Act. The chairman told Muslim students at a seminar on drug abuse at Jamia Mosque in Nairobi yesterday that the failure by the ministry was a clear indicator of Government's inability to enforce laws to the menace. [continues 128 words]
Nairobi Cannabis sativa (bhang) remains the most widely grown, trafficked and abused drug in Kenya and other African countries. According to the 2003 United Nations Annual Report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the drug accounts for approximately one quarter of global cannabis seizures in recent years. The report says the bulk of the cannabis seizures have been reported in South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, Malawi, Morocco, Nigeria and Tanzania. The United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Koffi Annan, is warning that economic opportunities provided by drug trafficking could lead to rivalry among drug gangs as they compete for a share of the market. [continues 599 words]
Nairobi Police arrested 3,299 suspected drug traffickers last year. They also seized 8,327 kgs of cannabis sativa (bhang), National Security minister Chris Murungaru said yesterday. The minister said the Government was taking deliberate action to discourage drug abuse among the youth. The remarks were contained in a speech read by Assistant minister Kivutha Kibwana during the launch of the 2003 United Nations Annual Report of the International Narcotics Control Board in Nairobi. Murungaru said the Government was now increasingly getting communities involved at the micro-level in its fight against illicit drugs trade and other crimes. [continues 317 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]
Delegates rejected a move to ban tobacco growing and consumption. Members of the technical committee on culture agreed to allow Kenyans to continue smoking freely. The motion was moved on Tuesday by Mr Thomas Marengo, who said tobacco farming and processing should be banned because cigarette smoking was a health hazard. It's growing, he said, exposed farmers to risks due to poisonous chemicals and led to miscarriage by women. Ms Layor Arupe said tobacco caused many diseases, including tuberculosis and lung cancer, but it would be impracticable to ban its use. [continues 348 words]
Nairobi They come in all forms and are distributed on the basis of financial wherewithal and experience in substance taking. For, depending on whether one is an amateur or hard-core substance taker; or depending on whether one is financially well endowed or not, the peddlers would persuade an individual into either purchasing the expensive, highly commercial hard drugs or to simply partake of what is ordinarily easily available on the market. Either way, most school children are first taught how to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol, but with time they graduate to such hard substances as Miraa, bhang, brown sugar, also known as Kichuri, heroine, valium, coccaine, Kuber and many other addictive pharmaceutical tablets that are today sold over the counter. [continues 451 words]
Nairobi Headteachers were last week divided over the issue of drugs in schools just a fortnight before they admit Form Ones freshly selected from last year's successful Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) candidates. While there is general consensus that the problem of drug abuse and trafficking in schools is on the increase, opinion is divided on what could be the real cause. A section of leaders and school administrators blame it on cultural pollution, a reference to the increasingly popular western culture; others blame the laxity in the law enforcement agencies for the escalation - while still others think it is a weakness of modern parenting that places the least emphasis on moral values. But again not so surprisingly, there are those like the police in Mombasa who are still engaged in the denial game. [continues 642 words]
Nairobi In two weeks time, a new set of students-selected after passing last year's Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) - will join high school. Already parents are in a frenzy looking for school fees after receiving admission letters that will see their children move a step closer to university education - and a bright future! Yet, even amidst all that excitement and anticipation there is a clear sense of concern among a cross section of parents about the real future of their children away from home. High school as we reveal today can be a dangerous hunting ground for drug traffickers. Consequently, Instead of a bright future - and this is the concern of parents - some students have been turned into zombies - quite literally. [continues 824 words]
Nairobi The Government has admitted the existence of drug barons in Mombasa and promised a crackdown on them. Local Government minister Karisa Maitha said the Government was in the process of flushing out the barons who have made densely populated neighbourhoods unsafe. Kibokoni, in the Old Town, he said, was infamous for hosting the barons, majority of them traffickers. Certain narrow alleys of the Old Town are no-go zones as they have been taken over by drug dealers. He said teenagers had been reduced to zombies due to drugs, as their parents helplessly watched them get wasted. [continues 70 words]
NAIROBI -The Attorney-General criminalised the inhaling of glue in the country last August. His act came after a long time of waiting and it sounded a splendid thing to do at the time. But it is as if he did nothing: Sniffing of glue as any one will tell him continues with the same usualness it used to even before the good A-G thought it wise to criminalise its sale. Criminal Law (amendment) Act 2003, No 46, says that any person found distributing substances declared by the Minister for Health as harmful to children will be liable to imprisonment for three years. [continues 265 words]
Contrary to common belief, not many Kenyans are consumers of the imported drugs - cocaine, mandrax, hashish and heroine. Kenya's biggest drug problem, according to the National Co-ordinator of the National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse, Joseph Kaguthi, is cigarette smoking, alcohol, miraa and bhang. These are the drugs whose potential for abuse by children below the age of 21 is causing great worry to the authorities. Bhang smoking is introduced through alcohol, cigarettes, miraa and inhalants. One out of eight of those who take alcohol, which according to Kaguthi removes any forms of social inhibitions, end up being alcoholics. In Western Province, 89 percent of children aged between 10 and 24 are today taking alcohol. [continues 176 words]
NAIROBI -- West African drug traffickers are using Kenya as a transit route due to a security lax. The National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (Nacada) National Co-ordinator, Mr Joseph Kaguthi, said yesterday though the Anti Narcotic Police Unit had tightened trafficking loopholes at the Jomo-Kenyatta International Airport, drugs were still coming in through the Wilson Airport and Eldoret International Airport. "The Wilson Airport and the Eldoret International Airport have been known to be major entry points for drugs," Kaguthi said in Eldoret. [continues 225 words]
Nairobi Kenya National Union of Teachers yesterday condemned rampant strikes in secondary schools and urged the Government to act firmly and decisively to contain the situation. Secretary-general, Mr Francis Ng'ang'a, said recent strikes had cost the country millions of shillings as school buildings were burnt by students. Ng'ang'a declared that Knut would not condone indiscipline in schools and urged the Government to punish all those involved in the acts. He attributed the frequent strikes to drugs, which, he said, were being sold to students by businessmen operating kiosks and shops around the schools. [continues 92 words]
Nairobi Last week, we highlighted a case of wanton drugs sale that is going on on one of the streets of Nairobi. The anonymous Kenyan who alerted us of the problem also made us understand that the police were aware of it and they regularly visited the area where they allegedly collect some pay-offs. They were thus doing nothing about it. We called upon the National Co-ordinator of the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (Nacada), Mr Joseph Kaguthi, the Nairobi PC, Mr Francis Sigei and the Police Commissioner, Mr Edwin Nyaseda, to get to the root of the case and arrest it. [continues 306 words]
Nairobi Security loopholes made smuggling of firearms, drugs and fake goods through Eldoret easy Drug trafficking, illegal importation of firearms, contraband goods and inadequate security led to a ban on cargo flights to Kenya's third international airport four months ago. A report prepared by an eight-man ministerial committee details the problems that led to the closure of the Eldoret International Airport in July. It was reopened on Saturday. Prepared by an under-secretary in the Transport and Communications ministry, Mr Charles Kimemia, it calls for sweeping changes that should include the management and security systems. [continues 680 words]
Nairobi - About 92 per cent of youths have experimented with a variety of narcotics, says Kaguthi An assortment of hard drugs recovered from traffickers in Nairobi. Drug abuse is widespread in learning institutions. It was business as usual for traders in Isiolo on Moi Day. There were no public festivities related to the holiday and the traders did not expect anything untoward. But the tranquil atmosphere was broken by a drunken mob which began looting, scrambling for alcoholic beverages, urinating and vomiting on the shop verandahs. [continues 416 words]
Nairobi Over One-Fifth Of Pupils Have Drunk Alcohol, It Says More than a fifth (22.7 per cent) of primary school children in Kenya have taken alcohol, a figure that rises to more than three-fourths (68 per cent) for university students. A large number of students across all age groups have been exposed to alcohol, tobacco, miraa (khat), glue sniffing, bhang (marijuana) and even hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine. The rampant drug abuse in learning institutions is confirmed by an unpublished study commissioned by the National Agency for the Campaign against Drug Abuse (Nacada). [continues 829 words]
The weekend closure of Machakos' Kinyui Boys High School after an arson attack that reduced all school structures to ashes was the latest in a string of acts of juvenile terrorism in our learning institutions. The recent Kyanguli hecatomb in which 68 boys lie buried still haunts us as does the conflagration which consumed four Nyeri High school prefects. There have been assertions that the high school - and even university - students involved in arson and other forms of terrorism were under the influence of drugs. [continues 238 words]
Inside Kenya
