Ruto's new anti-narcotics unit faces many hurdles in war against drugs

Stakeholders working against alcohol and drugs abuse have argued that President William Ruto's decision to establish an anti-narcotics unit within the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) may not yield much fruits in winning the fight. 

In his New Year's speech, President Ruto promised to strengthen the anti-narcotics unit, to give it an operational capacity comparable to the anti-terrorism police unit, which will operate as a permanent multi-agency formation to crack down the cartels running the illegal trade.

The President said the crisis demands decisive national action and the government will confront alcohol and drug abuse as a national development and security emergency, backed by political will, expanded enforcement capacity, and coordinated action across government.

“The Asset Recovery Agency will be engaged from the point of seizure, and all assets used or acquired through these activities, including cash, vehicles, land, buildings, and businesses, will be treated as proceeds of crime, promptly frozen, forfeited to the State, and redirected to rehabilitation, prevention, and treatment programmes,” he said.

To support this expansion, the unit’s strength will be boosted from the current 200 to 700 officers through new recruitment and redeployment, all trained and equipped for national operations against high-level traffickers, financiers, and organized criminal networks.

However, stakeholders such as former National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Nacada) chairperson John Mututho argue that there are enough laws and agencies mandated to fight alcohol and drug abuse in the country.

He criticised the President for purporting to establish the unit which already exists, even as he dismissed calls to strengthen it, saying all what was needed was a political goodwill as well as aligning the Alcoholic Drinks Control Act 2013 famously known as Mututho laws.

“The Mututho laws clearly came up with four sets of regulations which include access, quality control, treatment and rehabilitation and enforcement regulations, out of this only access of alcoholic drinks has been gazetted; the other three which are elaborate on winning the fight have not, they are lying on Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen’s desk,” said Mututho.

According to Mututho, the regulations entailed measures of allowing traditional liquor such as muratina, and chang’aa a move he said would have allowed Kenyans to consume properly prepared traditional liquor to mitigate proliferation of illicit liquor.

“There is a lot of illicit liquor being prepared under the guise of traditional brew but because of the failure by the government to gazette and implement the regulations Kenyans have been left exposed.”

He added, ‘‘on treatment and rehabilitation, the regulations had set strict guidelines on the rehabilitation centres but again without the enforcement of the rules, business people have been left to open rehabs which don’t meet the local and international standards thereby worsening the health situation of the addicts,” said Mututho.

While reacting to the President’s announcement to increase police officers under the anti-narcotics unit from 200 to 700, Mututho maintained that the move would bear no fruits since what was needed was not police officers but the right attitude and fight against corruption.

“When I was at the helm of leadership at Nacada, only two police officers were active yet on paper there was supposed to have 200 police officers but this did not prevent us from doing a splendid job, let the President have the right people on the job, not his friends let him be steadfast put his note on the ground and look at the notes left by the third President Mwai Kibaki and he will deliver,” Mututho noted.

 On his part Eric Okeyo, a security and governance expert noted that establishing the already existing police unit would not be a game changer saying what the President needed to do was to increase the maritime police.

“As a security practitioner of three decades I know that high-value narcotics are transported by the sea, they’re not transported on the ground, hence the work of this anti-narcotics unit will achieve little if they are not helped by an expanded multi-agency group. I didn’t expect the President to be talking of creating an anti-narcotics unit,” said Okeyo.

He thinks the statement was meant to intimidate, create panic and threaten Kenyans by branding them as terrorists. All he needs to do is expanding the maritime police to help deal with the drug menace.

Another school of thought argues that the unit could be brought in to advance business interests, because the unhealthy competition counterfeit alcohol has generated in the country.

Ruto’s order comes barely a month after alcoholic beverages giant Diageo sold its majority stake in East Africa Breweries Ltd to Japanese brewer Asahi Group Holdings, raising questions from some politicians. 

In its 2025 annual report, EABL, the region’s leading alcoholic beverage company, revealed that it was grappling with an unprecedented rise in counterfeit and illicit alcohol which now accounts for 60 per cent of the total alcohol consumed in Kenya.

 It is these statistics affecting the multi-billion shilling industry that could be worrying the President more, even questions are raised on the effects of the cheap alcohol that young Kenyans aged between 18 and 35 are consuming at an alarming rate.

 It remains to be seen whether Ruto will succeed where his predecessors, who include Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta, failed.

For example in April 2015, for example, KRA staff destroyed wines and spirits valued at 60 million at the Nairobi Water and Sewage dumping point in Ruai while in May 2018, the business community expressed fear to then Nacada chairman Joseph Kaguthi that the illegal products, was estimated to be controlling 40 per cent of national economy could take over in the not too distant future.

The trade in counterfeit products was believed to have had an impact on KRAs consistent failure to meet its targets during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime.

Experts also fear that the country might be headed for a scenario where it will be under the control of counterfeiters by 2030, unless immediate measures are taken to wipe it out, or at least control it.

It is anticipated that by 2030, counterfeit products will be killing Kenyans in their thousands.