Companies

Drug cartels and crime hamper dream of a 24-hour city economy

usiku

Nairobi skyline by night. Crime is hampering the 24-hour economy plan. Fredrick Onyango

Security agents in Nairobi are working to dismantle drug-trafficking and crime rings that have emerged as the key hindrance to the success of a 24-hour economy in the capital.

Efforts to have a 24-hour economy in the city have been hampered by the resurgence of armed gangs whose criminal activities have led some shopping outlets that had started operating round the clock to close for business early.

“There is a clear nexus between drug-trafficking and financing of crime in Nairobi and this is what we are seeking to break,” said Nairobi provincial commissioner Njoroge Ndirangu in an interview. “The intention is to attract more investments”.

He said security agents have established that drug money is being used to finance acquisition of guns and also used in alternative crime financing methods.

“In the next few weeks, we are going to launch a campaign first targeting drug use as has happened in Mombasa,” he said. The Mombasa case has been termed as a deterrent to drug-trafficking because demand went down after government started offering treatment to the addicts.

The delay in implementing a 24-hour economy has meant deferred job opportunities, lost revenue and a decrease in the pace of economic growth. The government estimates that Nairobi contributes 60 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product or the value of goods and services produced in Kenya every year.

Mr Ndirangu was speaking at the sidelines of the launch of the World Drug Report in Nairobi on Friday. The report by the a United Nations Agency on drugs and crime UNODC found that Kenya is leading in cases of increased use of heroin and cocaine compared to other African countries.

A similar trend was noted by the US State Department 2011 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report that said drug-trafficking in and through Kenya is a threat to US national security interests.

The report revealed that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) plans to open a country office in Nairobi. It said personnel from the DEA Pretoria Country Office in South Africa have been working with Kenya in counter-narcotics. In the past two years, number drug- trafficking related arrests especially at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport has been on an increase with hardly a month passing before a major arrest is made.

But statistics from the State Department report show that the number of arrests in narcotics dropped sharply from 2009 to 2010. In all, around 1,350 people were arrested in 2010 and prosecuted in court. Only 12 of those arrested in 2010 were non-Kenyan. In 2009, the number of those was around 3,200.

For both years around 95 percent of the cases were for marijuana and about 4 percent for heroin. Arrests for cocaine and psychotropic substances were recorded but in negligible numbers.

“Seizures of drugs increased dramatically from 2009 to 2010, but still only represent a tiny fraction of what is believed to transit in and through Kenya. The amount of heroin seized went from 8.5 kg in 2009 to 35.2 kg in 2010; for cocaine it went from 10 kg to 23 kg over the same period,” said the report.