Drug barons target Nyeri students with flashy lifestyles

Drugs displayed to the public at the ACK Kutus Church to familiarise security agents on the kind of drugs being abused by youths. [Photo, Standard] Drug barons in Nyeri are using college and university students to peddle drugs in the institutions, Nyeri County Commissioner Ronald Mwiwawi has revealed. The administrator said that unscrupulous businessmen are targeting students from humble backgrounds, devising new tactics of enticing them with flashy gifts such as high-end cars and lavish lifestyles to lure them into the illicit trade. "When you are given that vehicle you are already put into that syndicate and coming out of it is a problem. We are going to find a way that we will collectively fight the menace in our institutions," he said. Speaking during a Jukwaa la Wasomi initiative in Nyeri, together with student leaders from universities, technical training institutes and security players in the county, Mwiwawi said that the major challenge with the youth and students is how to manage drug and substance abuse. The County Commissioner noted that the forum created a platform for them to have an in-depth discussion on the issues affecting the youth and how to mitigate them. "What we are doing is trying to bridge the gap between the young people and the government. It has come to our attention that most of our young people do not understand how the government operates, the roles of different departments and ministries, hence the need for the Jukwaa la Wasomi initiative to have an interactive session with the young people," he said. He observed that, other than drug and substance abuse in institutions of higher education, the students are also grappling with mental wellness, unemployment and the lack of sex education. He warned that unless urgent measures are put in place, young people joining the institutions will continue to battle the triple threat. "Instead of indulging in drugs and getting misused by politicians, the government has come up with programmes suited for the young people. If utilised well, our youth can be empowered, be financially stable and gain financial freedom. We expect a lot of entrepreneurship from the young people moving forward so that we do not train people to seek employment but we train people who can also be employers," said the County Commissioner. He called for the introduction of sex education and mental wellness education as a way of helping the students gain self-awareness and effectively tackle life issues. Mwiwawi said the student leaders now understood the process followed in policy formulation and what it takes to have a policy enacted and put down for implementation purposes. "So they have known their role in policy-making and we expect going forward we will have better engagement with the young people and better engagements on the policies that are already in place. They need to know who we are and what we do. This is bringing the government closer to the people because in most cases our young people address issues at the national level. Sometimes they want to address the President and they forget that we are down here, we are the representatives of the government," he noted. The County Commissioner said the forum is not a one-day engagement but will have more going forward at the county level and the sub-county level. He observed that this being the first engagement, the students had expressed their needs, and the next time he will engage departmental heads so that they can articulate different issues relating to their ministries' functions and projects. Mark Collins, the president at Karatina University and coordinator of Nyeri student leadership, acknowledged that most of the students in universities were struggling with drug abuse, a situation he attributed to having too much time on their hands. The student leader noted that through the discussion the students had been familiarised with how the government works and will be able to articulate their issues through the right channels. "We have learnt that these police officers are human beings and that we can engage them and co-exist harmoniously. We cannot live in a country that is issue-less. Problems are there, but how we address them makes a difference," Collins said. He noted that the student leadership will form a counselling group to help the students and invite the university counsellors and men's conferences to pass the information. Leah Mwihaki from Tetu Technical said that it is very vital for the institution to teach sex education as most of the first-year students get very overwhelmed and are prone to being misled when they join institutions of higher education. Treva Muriuki from Nyeri National Polytechnic appealed to the government to provide more machines to facilitate training in Technical and Vocational Training Institutes as more students were opting to take up technical courses.

Drug barons target Nyeri students with flashy lifestyles

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