State must show will to beat drug lords

The peril and devastation of drug trafficking and use in Kenya is today legendary and catastrophic in equal proportions. The saddest chapter in the quandary we find ourselves in - which is international in dimension, and the way it pans out its killer courier and consumption network, lies in the fact we seemingly are getting deeper into the murk.

Before we dismiss the problem facing us as mere perception and gross exaggeration, we must remind ourselves that we hold the shameful distinction of being the country where in 2004, the largest haul ever of cocaine was found. Weighing 1.5 metric tonnes and worth Sh6.4 billion, the cocaine indicated to be from Venezuela arrived disguised as bananas in refrigerated containers.

Given the amounts involved, this could not have been the case of a one-off merchant or a by-chance discovery. Every week we read about stories of ‘mules’ nabbed at the airport and found to be have ingested pellets of the drug — meant for sale to the ‘high’ society.

What is even more worrying is not so much that the illicit business has grown in leaps and bounds, with media reports on discovery of a cache of cocaine and heroine almost on a daily basis, but that our anti-narcotic agencies appear outmanoeuvred and outsmarted.

But on this we could be wrong, as it is possible they have been compromised by the drug lords, and many of them have chosen to either play ball or look the other way.

As we have said before, the rising perception in the international arena that Kenya is the conduit of drugs from the notorious Asiatic and Middle-Eastern states, to the West is a harsh indictment of the country, and a discomforting development.

If not reversed, or if the State fails to show commitment to the war on drug trafficking, it is likely to make us a pariah State and soil our image internationally.

The red flag in a crime of this magnitude and scale is usually raised when it seems that those who are mandated to fight it have been neutered or sucked into the dirty money game. When this happens, especially with those on the apex of society looking complicit and beneficiaries of this vile criminal act, it follows that the junior officers supposed to fight the menace will either follow suit for survival’s sake, or play safe.

It is no wonder then that in the last few years, we have had some of the most cowardly and blood-curdling cases of police assassinations linked to drugs taking place in Mombasa. Because of its centrality as a port city, it is anyone’s guess why this Coastal gateway has remained the perpetual theatre of the drug trade and, sadly, abuse.

Respect suspects’ rights

Our concern is not just the report on suspected drug lords listed by the US administration, or the group of four MPs, tabled in Parliament by Internal Security Minister Prof George Saitoti, and discussed by MPs last week. Gruesome as it were, we must respect the fact that the four MPs who defended themselves against claims of dealing in drugs, are innocent until proven guilty.

We must also, lest the rights of the innocent are trampled upon, and their reputation and dignity eroded by unsubstantiated linkage to drugs, demand that the State is held to account for its claims against its citizens. It must only make claims it can defend, and given that its intelligence and crime-deterrence machine is both vast and elaborate, this is not a difficult thing to do. Which is why today, as Saitoti returns to Parliament to pick up from where he left last week, it is expected that he will carry with him complete reports, not preliminary findings.

But that said, we must reiterate that the issue is far bigger than the four MPs, and raises the moral question on where Kenya is headed and why the surge in perception it is the new inter-change in the highway of global drugs network.

The same concerns as raised by the US and the UK or European Union in general, may be dismissed as part of the West’s policing and condescending attitude to Kenya. But when neutral international bodies such as the United Nations come to the same conclusion, there is surely reason to worry.

We must remember that one of the banks now in paralysis was accused of being of part of existing to ‘clean-up’ the money from drugs. The bottom-line is Kenya is now on the global radar and we need to review our anti-narcotic strategies beyond the recent feeble-hearted reshuffle by the President.