MORE KENYANS FALLING PREY TO DRUG TRAFFICKING

An increasing number of Kenyans are being used as couriers for
international drug syndicates which have found a ready market in
Europe and the US.

Most of the Kenyan mules - couriers who hide the drug on themselves
or their luggage, or even ingest it - have been arrested trying to
smuggle in heroin instead of the more expensive cocaine.

Cocaine has a much higher value than heroin in the local and
international markets. A kilo of cocaine fetches Sh5 million, while
that of heroin goes for Sh1.5 million. Couriers who have been
arrested include models, airline stewards and stewardesses and
business people who fall prey to the high returns they are
guaranteed if they deliver the consignments.

Between January 2003 and September 1, this year, 233 Kenyans and 85
non-Kenyans were held for trafficking in heroin, say Kenyan police.
Tanzanians constitute the highest number of foreigners seized with
33, followed by Nigerians 14 and Ghanaians 11.

Ugandans, Seychellois, Somalis, Congolese, South Africans and
Mauritanians are the others arrested as they tried to smuggle in
heroin through Jomo Kenyatta, Moi and Eldoret International airports.

But the amounts so far impounded pale into insignificance before the
1.1 tonnes of heroin worth Sh6.4 billion seized in a Malindi beach
house stuffed in a speedboat and in a Nairobi warehouse in December 2004.

Considered to be the biggest seizure of heroin in Africa, the haul
was being repackaged for onward transmission to the Netherlands.

Apart from the haul which has since been destroyed, 119 kg of heroin
worth more than Sh179 million was impounded from couriers at the
Kenyan airports in the past three years.

During the same period, cocaine with an estimated street value of
Sh6.7 billion was impounded and 38 people held, 19 of them Kenyan mules.

Police Spokesman Gideon Kibunja attributed the growing number of
Kenyans arrested to foreign couriers avoiding the country's airports
because of the stringent anti-drug trafficking measures being implemented.

"Most West African drug traffickers have been shying away from our
airports because of the stringent measures by anti-narcotics police
and customs officers," he said. "Many Kenyans have turned to the
narcotics trade because they think they attract less suspicion from
Kenyan security personnel. They are very wrong. All nationals are
subjected to the same security check-ups."

Mr Kibunjah said most of people arrested with drugs are couriers who
are only carrying them for other people. None of those arrested had
given names of the people using them to traffic drugs which would
help police with investigations.

"Most of those arrested often say they were given some luggage by
somebody with instructions that they be met on arrival in Kenya," he
says. "Once the persons waiting to receive the luggage realises the
courier has been arrested, they disappear into thin air."

Many couriers serving long prison terms say they were given clothes
with buttons packed with cocaine, shoes or even suitcases with false
bottoms by newly-found friends who request them to carry the stuff
through customs.

The couriers do not know who is supposed to meet them, but are
informed that they will be paid a substantial amount of money after
delivering the package.

People waiting to meet the couriers disappear when they realise they
have been caught.

Mr Kibunja said that while most Kenyan mules prefer to conceal the
drugs in their luggage, Tanzanians, West Africans and Pakistanis
swallow pellets stuffed with the powder.

His claim that most of the drug being trafficked is for use
elsewhere in the region, Europe and America contradicts findings of
the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.