Drugs menace that won’t just go away amid latest crackdown

Some of the 16 youths addicted to drugs surrender to the government during a public meeting at Likoni in Mombasa County on Wednesday 9th September 2015. Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa warned the officers collaborating with drug barons and directed the area DCIO to ensure all drug barons are arrested and charged in court. Photo/Kelvin Karani

That drug abuse has enslaved thousands of youths and arrested socio-economic development at the Kenyan Coast is not in doubt.

First time visitors to the coastal counties of Mombasa, Kwale and Kilifi are often bewildered by the dreadful images of young men and women wasting away in abandoned buildings and beaches, inhaling, snorting or injecting narcotics.