Drug traffickers’ paradise in the lake

By Fred Moturi and John Oywa

An acrid smell of rotting fish wafted into the air as we approached the island.

Giant vultures attracted by mountains of garbage, flew impatiently, their sharp claws hanging dangerously over a group of children playing on the beach.

Our guide, a young well-built fisherman with bulging eyes, carefully guided the boat to a stop at the busy Remba Island beach as the sun razed down the horizon.

He wiped his brow, adjusted his cap and faced us: "This is Remba Island. It is not a very safe place so be careful because these people do not like strangers."

As we disembarked from the boat, our hearts pounding with fear, a potent smell of bhang hit us. The smoker, a young man in his early 20s, standing only a few metres from us.

We look shocked, but our guide laughs at us. "You are shocked at that young man? I pity you because you are yet to see the wonders of Remba," he says casually.

A three days stake out by CCI team on the Lake Victoria island, unfolded unbelievable networks of underworld activities.

With a spectacular landscape and a population of about 2,000 people from all over East Africa and others from as far as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Remba Island is an undisputed haven for criminals, runaway convicts, prostitutes, smugglers, pirates and drug barons from this region.

The few Administration Police officers running a patrol base on the island are overwhelmed by the runaway crime and appear to have been compromised.

"Here we have daring drug dealers and prostitutes doing their trade openly. Someone has allowed drug dealers, pirates and prostitutes to take control of the island. We are living in a drugs paradise. School going children are being induced into drug trade," says John Obonyo a resident.

Children drug traffickers

On this island, residents hardly sleep. If they are not fishing, they are selling chang’aa, bhang or contraband goods. In fact, we came face to face with residents openly hawking bang and chang’aa.

It is one of the richest islands on the lake, with fishermen, traders and smugglers handling millions of shillings every day.

But the pull of the lifestyle and the fast and easy money means that children often as young as 10 year old have turned into hawking the drugs.

Many others help their parents to prepare rolls of bhang, which are later transported to other parts of the country.

Bhang is transported in boats from Tanzania, Uganda and other areas and brought to Remba, a resident says. It is then re-packaged and secretly transported to the mainland for distribution to other towns.

Remba Island neighbours Ringiti and the disputed Migingo islands where smuggling and crime are slowly beginning to overshadow fishing activities.

Most of these islands in Lake Victoria have become hiding places for criminals running away from justice. Because of the confusion, break down of law and order and long distance from the mainland, it is difficult for police to get criminals hiding on the islands.

Well-connected drug traffickers and pimps have taken advantage of the island being far from the mainland and the lapse in policing.

Lavish lifestyle

The traffickers live lavishly on the island with expensive satellite dishes and decoders monitoring local and international news and sports, residents say.

The CCI team travelled to the island following a tip-off by a local fisherman who said law-enforcement agencies had turned a blind eye on the drug trade in Remba.

"We don’t know where these drug traffickers come from. Remba is a haven for all people. They arrive here day and night but no one bothers to find out who they are and what they do," says Isaac Olimo.

Olimo says that in Remba Island, foreigners come in and talk to the beach management team whom he says allocates plots to newcomers without investigating who they are.

safe houses

"Strangers arrive here with lots of money. They talk to the beach leaders and are quickly allocated plots to build shanties where the do their dirty businesses. No one knows what goes on inside these houses," says Olimo.

As the CCI team toured the island last Saturday morning with our cameras concealed in our jackets, we came a cross groups of people openly smoking bhang as they packed the drug in small rolls they call Rizla.

They welcomed us into the bhang packaging dens after we posed as clients.

Bhang was spread all over the floor as workers packaged it.

The leader of the group, only known to the locals as Habari, sought to know who we were. We said we had been sent by a drug dealer from Kisumu to make inquiries about supplies.

The drug den is only a few metres from Remba Primary School, which has only a handful of pupils.

We leave after agreeing that we would visit him again in late September. But to signify our commitment, we leave him with Sh1,000.

Locals say that Habari works for a wealthy woman from Homabay known as Jessica.

With the help of our informers, we visited eight other houses under the guise of seeking for the best wholesale price for the drugs. In some houses, we found women and their children packaging bhang into small rolls the size of cigarette sticks.

Residents say that boats loaded with jerricans of chang’aa normally dock at the beach every Monday. They say drug abuse on the island was responsible for the many accidents in the lake, most of which go unreported, involving fishermen as many of the youths go fishing while drunk.

Mr Joseph Odongo alleges that chang’aa is mixed with formalin to make it more potent.

"This illicit brew is so dangerous and because we have no health facility around, most of the consumers just pass on after developing chest and lung problems," he says.

A pimpers’ paradise

Fishermen in the Island rarely bank their proceeds due to lack of banking facilities and therefore quickly use the cash in merry making.

They need at least four hours in a boat to reach Mbita town where there are banks.

Other foreigners have taken advantage of the situation and are running bars and brothels.

Commercial sex workers from as far as Kampala, Nairobi, Mwanza and the DRC have pitched camp in Remba to tap the easy money.

Two women said to be from the DRC, Nanyonjo and Mama Joan, are running one of the busiest brothels on the island.

Nanyonjo told CCI she has stayed in the Island for over three years now after running away from Uganda where she worked as a bar maid and a cook.

"I ran away because people wanted to lynch me on allegations that I had drugged a policeman and stole money from him," she said.

"I don’t deliberately involve these young girls in commercial sex because when I came here I found them practicing it. This is the life here for women and it’s only that I am so close to them so I have to get clients for them," Nanyonjo explained.

One of the young prostitutes who said she is from Gwasi constituency said she was brought to the island by a woman who had promised her that she would work in a salon and earn good money.

Mbita District Commissioner Haroun Opuka Odino denies that Remba Island has become a drug trafficking haven.

He says the Kenya Government has maintained a permanent police patrol on the island.

"This is a very small Island that my administrative unit cannot fail to effectively control. I would like to assure you that nothing has gone out of control to warrant any kind of undue attention," Odino says.

Local police boss Mr Clement Wangai says the island is policed by Administration Police officers.

I have not been given reports about a drug smuggling ring on the island but I will launch immediate investigations and take drastic measures on those involved," he said.

And as the Government continues to deny it, drug lords will continue to supply the mainland with drugs packaged in Remba Island.