Crackdown on drugs, brew starts in Coast

A crackdown has been launched to smoke out drug barons and sellers of illicit brew in Coast region.

This follows a similar exercise conducted in Kwale and Kilifi counties barely six months ago.

The Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) will start in Mombasa and will see a multi-agency security team headed by Mombasa County Commissioner Gilbert Kitiyo target drug peddlers and sellers of illicit brew.

‘Drugs business’

The team comprises of officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the National Police service, local administrators, and the National Authority for Campaign against Alcohol and Drugs Abuse (Nacada).

“For a very long time, we have been dealing with consumers of the drugs forgetting that we have kingpins in the drugs business. This round, we are going to smoke them out of their hideouts and the law will take its course,” said Mr Kitiyo.

He revealed that he had the names of people listed as major drug peddlers, warning that they will be arrested and charged in court before the crackdown ends.

“We have the names of the main drug peddlers, and this time they have nowhere to hide,” Mr Kitiyo said during a meeting attended by members of the security apparatus in Mombasa County held at Majaoni Centre in Kisauni.

He noted that, being the largest port in East Africa, Mombasa has become the capital of a new drug trafficking route.

Cocaine from Latin America and heroin from Asia is believed to transit through Kenya, before heading to Europe.

Illicit brew

The national government has already started the crackdown with several traders in the illicit brew business arrested in the operation expected to end on March 22.

“This is a war that we must win. There is no time to sit back and watch the young generation get lost in drug abuse,” Mr Kitiyo said.

At the same time, the government is looking to shut down unlicensed alcohol sellers who operate near schools.

Nacada Coast chairman George Karisa warned that the port city is on the verge of losing control of the vice that has consumed the most productive generation between the ages of 15 and 40 years.

He said Kisauni had the county’s highest cases of heroin users.

Current use

“We have over 10,000 users of heroin in Mombasa County alone. Kisauni is leading with over 5,000 while Mvita is second with at least 3,000 heroin users. This number should not be taken lightly. If we are not careful, the situation could get out of hand,” warned Karisa.

Data from Nacada shows that Mombasa is leading in current use of at least one substance with 323,143 people, or 34 percent of the population, abusing the drug.

It is followed by Lamu County with 32,492 (32 percent of its population).

The drive will also see other counties, including Lamu, targeted.

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