By Joseph Masha
Government officials admitted they are losing the war against drugs to traffickers in Coast Province.
They cited lack of resources, political will and rehabilitation facilities. Speaking in Kilifi on Thursday, they said drug barons have resumed supply of narcotics, which has affected rehabilitation programmes.
The Provincial Police Officer Aggrey Adoli urged the public to volunteer information on drug peddlers to the police under the Community Policing Programme.
But the Chief psychiatrist in the province, Dr Charles Mwangome, warned supply of narcotics has increased in the region and the number of those seeking treatment over drug abuse has reduced.
Experts have blamed the low number of patients on rise in narcotics supply and suspect those who were in rehabilitation have returned to drug abuse. They also said treatment was affected by shortage of rehabilitation centres, trained staff and equipment.
failed to apprehend
“The number of drug addicts coming for treatment has reduced because the supply has increased but through some outreach programmes and sensitising them to come for treatment, some of them are coming to the hospitals,” Mwangome said.
The National Alcohol and Drug Abuse Authority (Nacada) said on Wednesday that they prefer to reduce demand for narcotics instead of tracking traffickers.
The Nacada national coordinator William Okedi said they are collaborating with UN agencies dealing in narcotics to establish rehabilitation centres.
“The Government has no capacity to deal directly with the people involved in drug trafficking, but it can ensure there are no open markets for the same by rehabilitating those affected and do more civic education to other Kenyans not to involve themselves in drugs abuse”, he said
Mwangome said supply of hard drugs went down last year when Internal Security minister George Saitoti named MPs suspected of engaging in narcotics trade.
He added that when the Government failed to apprehend drug barons, supply of narcotics resumed and addicts are back on drugs.
The matron in charge of Mombasa Municipal Council clinics, Celina Githinji, said the 12 clinics cannot cope with the number of addicts and most workers are not trained on rehabilitation. However, Ms Githinji said the health workers were taken for special training to deal with cases of drug addicts.
“Dealing with drug addicts needs specially trained medical personnel and since the Government had tried to create some rehabilitation centres in Mombasa the existing health workers had to be taken for special training,” she said.
Dr Saade Abdallah of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said the organisation in collaboration with Nacada was in the process of putting up a female drugs addicts rehabilitations centre.
