NARCOTICS ARE SOLD IN OPEN AIR MARKETS IN THE OLD TOWN

Nairobi -- A casual observer looking down Kuze Street in Mombasa's Old Town
will notice groups of youths lazing idly at corners.

But one will hardly suspect that these are drug peddlers and addicts.

According to authorities and community social workers, Mombasa's Old Town
has the largest number of drug peddlers and addicts of all the country's
urban centres.

A labyrinth of narrow streets that define the Old Town make concealment
easy, the perfect environment for narcotics peddlers and addicts.

A seminar in Mombasa last week organised by Reachout Rehabilitation Centre,
for Ministry of Health, was told that out of 10,000 addicts in Mombasa
District, 5,000 are in the Old Town, the part of the island that is over a
century old.

A massive drugs trade is conducted openly, day and night.

And it is shocking to watch youths selling drugs with little fear of arrest.

We staked out the drug peddlers for several days from a shop on Kuze Street
and on the narrow streets and noticed that there might as well be no law in
the Old Town, as far as the youths are concerned.

Like others in the town, Kuze Street is known for hard drugs and business
here peaks in the night. It is then that rich Arab and Bajuni youths sell
bhang and other drugs in open air markets.

Some shout across the street to colleagues for change as if they are
selling any legal market commodity.

We watched at dusk as sleek limousines and four-wheel drive vehicles, with
heavily tinted windows, drove slowly on the one-way streets, making stops
now and then where the peddlers wait in small groups.

A hand dashes out of the car to hand over a parcel and the car drives on.
Often, the youths hand over money, probably from yesterday's sales.

And amazingly, this could easily be the 1930s Chicago, in the days Al
Capone, but it is Mombasa Old Town steeped in the Narcotics trade. Behind
one hardware shop on Kuze Street, peddlers crouch and pour out bhang onto a
paper, then sit down to create small rolls. Passersby pay little attention.

"This is like hell, drugs are all that happen here. We have given up," said
a dejected shopkeeper.

He said he had called police severally to arrest the peddlers but to no avail.

"When the police come, somehow the peddlers disappear, it is like someone
warns them in advance. Even when they are arrested, we see them back the
following day," he said.

"It is not just bhang, they are also selling heroin, cocaine and hashish,"
said a retired policeman, who told us of massive corruption involving the
dealers and police.

The retired police sergeant said the drugs trade in the Old town was no
longer secretive. When police make serious arrest attempts, the peddlers go
off the streets for a few hours, only to re-emerge and go on as if nothing
happened.

Investigations by the East African Standard also found that the drugs trade
was also rampant in other parts of the town, including outside the island.

The hot-beds include Mtopanga in the North mainland and Bamburi and
Kwaarera in Likoni, both in the South mainland.

Other areas badly affected are Tononoka behind a secondary school, Kijiwe
Umbu near Fort Jesus, Crazy near Old Port in Old Town and Pigot Place.

Also notorious are Mkanyageni, Majengo Sokoni, and Mwembe Kuku near fire
station, Makande, Kaloleni Centre on Samburu Road, Matopeni, and Masanduku
behind Mwembe Tayari Kilifi Stage, Bondeni and a corridor from Makadara to
Old Mombasa Town Road.

The peddlers are also members of dangerous gangs, who can kill anyone
interfering with them. Even taking pictures of them is a dangerous assignment.

Our investigations found that the dealers never stay in jail for long when
arrested - they bribe their way out.

A roll of bhang goes for Sh10 in the Old Town depending on the length of
the roll. A sachet of heroin costs between Sh100 to Sh300 depending on
demand and quality. Cocaine is sold in tiny chips that cost about Sh100.

Youths selling the drugs appear drugged, talk sluggishly and many handle
bundles of notes loosely.

It is understood that they are all agents of very rich barons who only
appear to supply the drugs and to collect the money. Turf wars often break
out in the Old Town and when they do, not even police dare to go and intervene.

Often, youths kill each other over the dominance of the drugs market.