Kenyan women being recruited as mules by West Africa drug lords – report
Kenya is re-emerging as a transit country for narcotic drugs like cocaine and heroin, a new government report has warned.
The report, shared among agencies, also warns that Kenyan women are being recruited as mules by drug trafficking networks in West Africa.
Three Kenyans, whom we have not named for legal reasons, are the most recent suspects to be arrested in China and Indonesia, and they implicated West African drug lords, shows the report.
DEATH ROW
The three join a list of Kenyans on death row in China and many others who are serving life sentences in Far East countries.
“The individuals have implicated West African syndicates operating in Kenya who tricked them into smuggling the narcotics to foreign countries. Most of the couriers arrested were oblivious of the stringent anti-narcotic laws in those countries,” adds the report.
Drug dealing is a capital offence in many countries in Asia and offenders are punished with death either by hanging or execution by a firing squad.
A life sentence in those countries is at times considered an option while lengthy sentences are regarded as leniency.
At present, five Kenyan women are on death row and five others are serving life sentences for drug trafficking in China. A number of male suspects are also being held in the foreign jails.
SUFFER IN SILENCE
There are many others whose cases are unknown because they preferred to either suffer in silence or used forged travelling documents and therefore their true identities are unknown.
Counter measures have been put in place at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to detect drug trafficking.
Most drugs detected at JKIA were found in mules who had swallowed pellets and in false bottoms of travelling bags.
“The drug traffickers target individuals in the low income bracket … while others are attracted to the quick gains,” says the report.
The government warning comes barely a week after the arrest of a Nigerian drug lord, Enobemhe Emmanuel Peter, who was deported from the country three years ago, in Kayole, Nairobi.
