Africa report
Elections in Kenya: Mombasa, Kenya's drug capital [5/5]
Audio 02:21
Mombasa City Passenger Terminal (illustrative image).
© Tony Karumba / AFP
By: Florence Morice Follow
3 mins
Direction Mombasa, last stop in our series of reports in view of the Kenyan presidential election on August 9.
The second largest city in the country and the largest port in East Africa, Mombasa has also become a hub for drug trafficking.
Heroin and cocaine transit there from Asia or Latin America and bound for Europe, and in the city, consumption has jumped.
The scourge particularly affects young people, in a city where the unemployment rate is also at record highs.
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With our special correspondent in Lamu,
"
You see the marks there...I inject heroin five or six times a day
."
Jackson shows us his left arm bruised by the spikes.
He is 35 years old, he would like to drop out, but the task is tough, all the tougher as finding drugs in Mombasa has become child's play.
“
Before, it was difficult
,” he continues, “
but today, you find them everywhere, even in this street here, you find them.
Even our moms know how to sell drugs discreetly… And if the police catch you… just give them some money and they'll be gone
”
Drug consumption, however, favors crime when it comes to finding the money to buy its doses.
Jackson does not brag about it, but he recognizes it: “
I lie to people, I tell them that I am sick, that I need to go to the hospital.
Sometimes I say that my mother is dead, and that I need money to bury her, while she is alive.
Sometimes I also steal, I pick pockets, or I snatch people's chains, or their telephones… I am aware that I am hurting people.
But I do.
»
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Elections in Kenya: in Nairobi, disillusioned youth facing the elections [1/5]
The NGO Reach out has been helping these drug addicts since 2005.
Drugs spare no social class or age category, but mainly affect young people.
In Mombasa, more than 40% of them are unemployed.
A risk factor, according to Susan Ochieng, psychologist in this NGO. “
Imagine a young man of 30, who has nothing to eat, who lives with his poor mother and whose friends offer him drugs…”
she explains, “
These young people are fragile.
They don't know when their next meal will be.
They only think about the present.
And live day to day.
They see no one to reach out to them and see no future
.”
The Kenyan government regularly announces that it is stepping up the hunt for traffickers.
Mohamed Swaleh, coordinates care at Reach Out.
He welcomes progress, but deplores the lack of means for the reintegration of drug users: “
The outgoing government has not done enough for the reintegration of drug addicts.
They opened a center, but it was very expensive.
But most patients have no resources and no means to pay.
The government should provide more support to centers that already exist, such as ours.
Our rates are low, but we only have 30 places and that's not enough
”.
According to the NGO, of the 10,000 drug addicts who need to stay in these centres, only a few thousand are taken care of.
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Elections in Kenya: Meru, the agricultural sector in difficulty [2/5]
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