Slum where heroin is sold like mobile

Smartly dressed youth move freely with paper bags filled with narcotics hawking the drugs. But they have to pay for police protection to conduct their business, writes MICHAEL ORIEDO

A narrow footpath chocking with filth snakes into ‘Nigeria’, an area famed for drug peddling in the heart of Mathare slums in Nairobi.

From a distance, several youths can be seen standing in groups conversing in hushed tones.

There is trouble in the air. Our search has brought us to this underworld of drug peddlers and users.

We learn that police had raided the place few minutes before our arrival thus prompting the gatherings.

“They found us smoking bhang and heroin and we had to part with some money to avoid arrest,” says a smoker who has been introduced to us by our contact known only as Kim.

Kim leads us to a spot away from his colleagues. “You want to buy the stuff (code name for heroin)?” he enquires cheerfully.

He frowns on learning our mission. Nevertheless, he accepts to speak to us on condition we buy for him the ‘stuff’.

Industrious man

“It is a booming business here. ‘Stuff’ is sold openly and it is on demand like mobile phone airtime,” says Kim. “There are people who walk around distributing it,” he adds.

Indeed, as we stroll along, his eyes brighten when he sees a man carrying a black plastic bag pass by. Kim then disappears in an alley with the seller. He consults with the man before he returns clutching a small piece of paper. “I got it. It costs Sh100,” he announces. The decently dressed man with his polythene bag cuts a figure of an industrious man heading home after a day’s work.

But as Kim delicately holds the stuff, the urge to smoke overcomes him and he leads us into his abode, a three by two metre shack.

heroin addicts

In the hut, we encounter two women and two men reeling under the effects of heroin and bhang.

We watch as Kim takes time to prepare the drug. He spreads bhang on a piece of paper, then he adds tobacco, Rohypnol powder (a sedative) and sprinkles heroin on top of the mixture.

He then rolls the paper into a ‘cigarette’ and lights to start smoking. He occasionally shares it with his colleagues.

As he gets intoxicated, Kim begins to narrate how he became a drug addict. It was in early 2000 while working as a matatu driver ai when a friend introduced him to hard drugs.

“I found him smoking what I thought was a cigarette and asked to take a puff. But after a few puffs, I realised it was an unusual cigarette. It burnt out every time,” he recalls.

Having tasted the ‘thrills’ of heroin, he did not stop. Kim found himself often craving for the drug. This habit saw him lose his job and ended up in ‘Nigeria’, Mathare.

His male colleagues in the room, a medical practitioner at a hospital in Nairobi, and a waiter at a popular fast food restaurant in town, have similar heart-rending tales. Later, two men in their late 40s, who we learn work at the nearby provincial administration office, join us in the room.

Our investigation have established that Mathare slum is a lucrative market and distribution point for heroin and bhang in Nairobi.

The drugs are ferried there and repackaged into smaller sachets and sold in the slums and other parts of the city.

“One gram of heroin produces between 22 and 25 sachets,” says a source in Mathare. “The sachets contain very small quantities of the drug and they retail at Sh100 in the slums. It is a very profitable business, if you have 20 kilograms you are a millionaire.” Most of those who peddle the drugs are young men in their 20s. Our investigations reveal that they supply the drugs in the slums and other adjacent areas where there is a ready market.

“There are more than 30 youths operating in the slum. They work in shifts to ensure that there is a constant supply. Some start from 7 am to 1 pm and another team takes over until 7 pm. There are those who prefer to work at night,” says our source, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons.

INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE

They use plastic bags to ferry the drugs, each holding about 1,000 sachets. This translates to Sh100,000.

“The peddlers and traffickers do not live in Mathare,” says our source. “The drug barons are influential people in society. Some have very decent jobs and operate successful businesses.”

CCI was shown a house in the slums, which our source claims belongs to a drug baron. The stonewalled house stands isolated among the shanties and is the envy of many residents.

During our mission, CCI came across five peddlers on the beat. One of them was a woman. “They are very professional in their conduct. They will never approach you. It is the user who goes to them therefore guaranteeing them safety,” says our contact.

However, the peddlers do not target only the slum residents. They too supply to other areas for instance, Thika, Kiambu, Ruai, Eastlands and the city centre.

In these regions, the prices vary. One sachet can sell for up to Sh300 depending on who the customer is, our source says. CCI also established that the drug barons use prostitutes to ferry the drugs to the backstreets of Nairobi.

“They sell the drugs in lodgings and hotels where most users seek refuge to smoke,” says the source.

He adds that the business thrives because it is driven by influential and wealthy persons.

“They bribe the police when they arrest their ‘boys’ and also to allow them do the illicit trade undisturbed,” says the source.

However, not only peddlers give bribes, users too are paying protection fees for the police to allow them to smoke freely.

FUELLING CRIME

“They conduct raids every week and demand money from users. They know everything that goes on here. They have told me that I will be paying Sh100 every week so that I smoke the stuff,” says Kim.

Drug peddling and use in the country is said to be widespread in Nairobi and Mombasa.

The National Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA) says that the problem has permeated all sectors of the society, with the youth and young adults being the most affected.

Drug traffickers have devised sophisticated methods to conduct their trade undetected.

However, corruption is cited as the major contributing factor in fuelling the crime. Law enforcers are said to be conspiring with drug traffickers therefore crippling the Government’s efforts to eliminate the vice.

In the past, several Government officers have been charged for complicity or abetting the evil. However, this does not mean that the country has lost the war on drug trafficking.

Deputy Police spokesperson, Mr Owino Wahongo, acknowledges that drug peddling and use exists in some estates and towns in the country.

“We know that drug peddling and use is in existence. However, we do not know how extensive the crimes are,” he says.

He says criminals find the crime tempting because it is lucrative. “The fact that drug peddling is illegal has made the vice more profitable. People conduct it in secrecy therefore raising its stakes.”

He admits that some police officers could be fuelling the menace by taking bribes and protecting peddlers.

rtime