Mja Wa Malao, one of Tana River County’s largest settlements, is known for harbouring key drug dealers and peddlers.
Located in the extreme east of Hola near the River Tana, the area, also known as “Mushroom”, is mainly characterised by old structures and narrow corridors and is believed to be one of the oldest settlements in the county.
In this ghetto, drug peddlers thrive while informants live on a knife-edge.
It is a well-coordinated group comprising elderly women, young men and commercial sex workers.
Here, junkies get their bhang, cocaine, hashish and heroin, among others, from houses that one may not suspect to be drug dens.
Whereas the key suppliers live in better houses in Hola and Kasarani, drug users survive in the old houses, where they meet their clients and finalise deals with other peddlers.
The area boasts high-level intelligence sources, a task entrusted with local commercial sex workers who have formed a base at each entry.
“Everybody knows everyone in this area. The moment you start moving with your property into a rented house, they will assign someone to befriend you and give feedback about you,” says Catherine Kandie, a resident (the names of sources have been changed to protect their safety).
Male guests usually fall for the trap of the young and beautiful commercial sex workers while females are tagged to elderly women, who play a motherly role, cushioning them with love and care just to get information on them.
The women are sentimental to the trade, as most of them are retail agents, while young men form a larger base of peddlers and clientele.
An informant has no chance of surviving in the area and would be lucky to escape alive, said Ms Kandie.
“Once they identify you are snitching, for a man they will stage a crime against you, especially defilement. One person will sacrifice their daughter, a minor. The girls are always ready because this is a routine. You will have sex with her then she will come home to report,” she says.
Female snitches risk having their food poisoned or, locals believe, being bewitched and going mad.
Many have fallen victim to the schemes, and are serving years behind bars, while others are in mental hospitals in Mombasa and elsewhere.
Jay Salim has been on the run for the past four years after it was established that his loyalty to the neighbourhood had been compromised.
The Mja Wa Malao street in Hola Town, Tana River County
Photo credit: Stephen Oduor I Nation Media Group.
“I had this friend who was a National Intelligence Service officer in 2016. He was investigating rumours about the area and I shared vital details with him,” he recounts.
Their friendship grew, but then someone else was watching, another police officer who was a beneficiary of the business.
The NIS officer was enticed by a young lady, not knowing she was bait.
The smitten officer grew fond of her and opened up to her about things he had learned about the area and the den she lived in.
“The guy said too much and that was the genesis of my tribulations. The officer was transferred within two months, but he told me to leave the area as my life was at risk,” he says.
A Form Three student from a local high school sought a place to sleep claiming the family home was full of visitors and noisy.
He obliged and was ready to spend the night with the girl in his house when he received a text message from an unfamiliar number asking him to meet outside.
“I walked out of my house, only to find another lady, a long-time friend who asked me not to sleep in that room. She told me I was being framed for defilement and that everything was going according to plan,” he says.
Mr Salim did not go back to his room but instead took a motorbike and fled to Malindi Ya Ngwena and spent the night at a friend’s house.
At dawn, he left the town.
Back in the ghetto, rumours had been peddled that he had defiled a girl and run away.
“I was on the officers’ radar. They tried to establish my whereabouts in vain because I had kept to myself,” he says.
Nearly all the officers that were tasked with finding him have been transferred while the girl she was accused of defiling has since been married and has dismissed the defilement claims.
However, his life remains at risk.
Mwanaisha Swaleh, a former resident of Mja Wa Malao, says that drug peddling is the economic lifeline of the area.
She notes that most people in the area sustain their livelihoods by selling drugs, which are always delivered between 1 am and 3 am.
“The curfew has even made things easier. The police are usually off the streets by midnight, and then traffickers deliver the consignment to retailers,” she says.
She notes that among the peddlers are commercial sex workers who are tasked with selling cocaine, women and young men selling hashish, bhang and cocaine while some elderly men and women sell bhang.
Cocaine clients, a growing market, have their packages delivered in the suburbs, where the drug is used during house parties.
Ms Swaleh says that most schoolchildren in the area are either involved in selling bhang to their peers in school or are in the commercial sex business.
“The place is a mess and needs a lot of combing, but it emerges that even the police are afraid to carry out an operation. The last officer to have tried in 2017 was transferred in unclear circumstances,” she says.
The Mororo slum in Madogo is also another growing den, where the youth make trips for various drugs.
Drug traffickers are fast establishing joints and recruiting agents in the areas to aid their activities.
Abubakar Hussein, a youth leader, notes that idle young people fall easily into the trap.
“There is a crackdown in Garissa County on drug traffickers and peddlers. Now they are seeking refuge in the Mororo slums and Madogo town. They need to be smoked out here as well,” he says.
Tana River County Police Commander Emmanuel Mwaringa says police have been investigating activities in Mja Wa Malao.
“We may appear to be quiet, but the day we comb that area, they will know we have been watching all along and it’s going to happen very soon,” he says.
As for Mororo, the county commander asserts that the dealers will not thrive as there is an ongoing operation against drug traffickers and peddlers.
He notes that officers had closed down all dens responsible for selling drugs from Ethiopia and Somalia.
