President Uhuru Kenyatta, you must now take war to those behind drug trade

By MACHARIA GAITHO

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President Willima Ruto together with some leaders from the Coast during their on-going tour. The president has warned drug lords that they will be dealt with firmly as the government seeks to protect the youth from the drug menace. FILEPHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP  NATION

In Summary

• The country’s rise as an international drug smuggling centre is proof that those who control the nefarious trade have partners and protectors at the very heart of government, especially in the political, security, and judicial arms.
• Whenever drug barons can buy and control the government, the country is in danger of becoming a narco-democracy or a narcocracia, with all the corruption and instability that this entails.
• As he drives that war, President Kenyatta would do his image a world of good by ridding his travelling entourage, party, and government of all the disreputable characters who carry around them even the mere whiff of involvement in the dirty trade.

One of the most significant moments behind Kenya earning global recognition as a crusader for animal conservation was witnessed in 1989, when President Daniel arap Moi made a bonfire of a heap of elephant tusks, rhino horns, and other game trophies.

Last Friday, President Uhuru Kenyatta sought to create his own iconic moment by witnessing the Kenya Navy consign to the depths of the Indian Ocean a seized drug smuggling ship and its illicit cargo.

With that, the President declared total war on those engaged in the narcotics trade. That is a war that deserves all support, especially when we consider the ruinous effects of heroin, cocaine, and other hard drugs that are wasting our youth.

In addition to destroying the lives of so many young people, the trade in illicit drugs also ruins governments. Drug barons thrive only when they capture and subvert to their own ends the political leadership, government administration, the judiciary, the police, and all other institutions of governance.

Kenya grows nary a bud, leaf, twig, flower, or whatever else goes into the production of heroin or cocaine, yet it has become a major transshipment hub for the substances originating in Asia and South America headed for markets in Europe and the United States.

The country’s rise as an international drug smuggling centre is proof that those who control the nefarious trade have partners and protectors at the very heart of government, especially in the political, security, and judicial arms.

Whenever drug barons can buy and control the government, the country is in danger of becoming a narco-democracy or a narcocracia, with all the corruption and instability that this entails.

That is the risk facing Kenya unless we can take the anti-drug campaign beyond mere rhetoric, public relations gimmicks, and publicity stunts.

Sinking a drug-laden ship and prosecuting the crew is just a small and ineffective gesture unless the real owners of the contraband, together with their protectors and partners in government, are arrested and punished to the fullest extent the law allows, including stiff jail terms and confiscation of all their ill-gotten wealth.

I would thus take it that what we have seen and heard on President Kenyatta’s declared war on drugs are just the opening salvos of what must be a sustained and merciless war to completely smash the narcotics cartels and their support networks ensconced in the very heart of his government.

DISREPUTABLE CHARACTERS

As he drives that war, President Kenyatta would do his image a world of good by ridding his travelling entourage, party, and government of all the disreputable characters who carry around them even the mere whiff of involvement in the dirty trade.

Is if often said that you are the company you keep. President Kenyatta must be aware, more than most, that close association with characters reputed to have made their fortunes from trading in drugs, and consequently destroying so many promising lives, reflects badly on him and makes nonsense of his declared war on the vice.

There are two important and related statements that have come from the President during his coastal sojourn. One is his restatement of the government’s resolve in the fight against terrorism.

The other is his reference to poaching and the illicit trade in game trophies, and its links to terrorism.
It would seem that for the first time, he is publicly acknowledging the unholy trinity of poaching, narcotics, and terrorist financing.

For a long time, the government has preferred to play deaf to warnings that the three, together with arms smuggling and money laundering, form a nexus of inter-related transnational crimes that are a threat to both national security and global peace.

The Kenya Police and the Kenya Wildlife Service have buried their heads in the sand. Instead of taking firm action, they have resorted to demonising those who point out the dangers posed by rampant poaching in our national parks, game reserves, private conservancies, and wildlife dispersal areas.

Now that the link and the threats to national security have been confirmed from the very top, we expect a renewed vigour in these separate but inter-linked wars.

mgaitho@ke.nationmedia.com. Twitter: @MachariaGaitho