COUNTRY A KEY ROUTE FOR DRUGS PUSHERS

NAIROBI -- West African drug traffickers are using Kenya as a transit
route due to a security lax.

The National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (Nacada) National
Co-ordinator, Mr Joseph Kaguthi, said yesterday though the Anti Narcotic
Police Unit had tightened trafficking loopholes at the Jomo-Kenyatta
International Airport, drugs were still coming in through the Wilson
Airport and Eldoret International Airport.

"The Wilson Airport and the Eldoret International Airport have been known
to be major entry points for drugs," Kaguthi said in Eldoret.

Kaguthi, who was in Eldoret to present a paper on drug and substances abuse
during the on-going Kenya Clinical Officers Association (KCOA) annual
national scientific conference, said security at the two airports must be
beefed up to check the entry of the substances.

He said some foreign drug traffickers were also landing in neighbouring
countries before entering the country by road. "Traffic police should be on
the watch-out against drug-traffickers using roads," he said.

Kaguthi said 80 per cent of bhang being used in the country originated from
neighbouring states.

"The bhang is usually brought in by matatus which mostly bear new
registration number plates, carry very few passengers and are driven at
high speed," said Kaguthi.

He said police should be on the look-out for vehicles headed for Nairobi
from the Western Kenya region.

He said some bhang peddlers have been using Government vehicles to ferry
their haul.

"The entry of bhang into the country reaches its peak around July and
August which is the harvesting period in the neighbouring countries," he said.

Kaguthi said police need to contain the trafficking of bhang especially
because it was destroying the youth.

"Bhang is a focused drug which encourages the youth to be indisciplined in
schools and those out of school to even engage in crime," Kaguthi said.