Drug Lords in Politics ... US Pretends to React

[Omollo]

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It used to be Mwau and Kabogo alone. They have been joined by Joho, Sonko and many others. Initially it was a Pakistan Mhindi thing but mostly transit. They are now cultivating the local market.

Unlike the West, the nature of the economy is such that sons and daughters of the wealthy are the first victims. May be then some action will be taken. I lost hope when they rented Uhuru to pretend to destroy the merchandise after they had offloaded it.

A report by the US State Department suggests that Kenyan authorities are under the control of narcotics smugglers.

The report not only confirms that Kenya remains an important transit point for illegal drugs, it also concludes that the trade thrives because narcotics kingpins are well entrenched in our political and business circles.

Drug barons take advantage of endemic corruption to buy influence within government, political classes, law enforcement mechanisms, and even the media.

This is a damning indictment of all the institutions that make up the nation. Any country in which organised crime is allowed to exercise influence within the organs of state is doomed to failure.

Transnational crime thrives where the institutions of governance work as tools of the criminals. The influence exercised by criminals explains why Kenya is a favoured redoubt for narcotics traffickers, ivory and rhino horn poachers and smugglers, dealers in illegal arms, and money launderers.

All those crimes are indelibly linked to terrorist financing. Kenyans must now begin to make the link between the death and destruction wrought by terrorists and the thirst for money displayed by their leaders.

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

Sonko's Rescue Team comes to mind.  What is it registered as?  It it a charitable organization? 

I see such ventures as ultimately nonviable.  The reason is there is only so much that personal goodwill can be relied upon to solve social problems.  What happens when Sonko's sources of finance run dry?

Longer term, it is better to develop the local communities to handle their problems away from reliance on handouts, regardless of the legitimacy of the financing.

[gout]

local barons were able to use uhuru to chase their foreign competitors .....US State Dept brokers must be hurting

[Omollo]

I have no doubt you are right. They kept quiet when the Indians and their white partners controlled the business throughout the 80s and 90s. They used the Flower Export business to freight their contraband to Europe. We had Indians renting farms and farmers in Limuru and the areas of Greater Nairobi to cultivate poppy, harvest and process. Moi put a stop to it (production) but he remained powerless to stop the more lucrative Transit business.

The Transit business expanded under Kibaki. The elimination of the Western Lords also received a boost when Ali became Police Commissioner. He is the first openly pro Drug Business Police boss. To this day Ali's private security rivals that of Uhuru Kenyatta minus the sirens.

local barons were able to use uhuru to chase their foreign competitors .....US State Dept brokers must be hurting

[gout]

the value chain has been benefiting even small scale farmers in Kenya ...just shows majority of us are naive when we talk of 'drugs' ...drug barons

Until two weeks ago, one could easily find opium poppy growing in farms in Njabini area of Kinangop. Not any more, after a police raid in which a farmer, David Kamau was arrested and could be jailed for 20 years if found guilty of growing a plant used in the production of the narcotics drug heroin.  The [Daily] Nation visited the area days after the police operation and established that farmers had rushed to uproot the plant none wants to be associated with.

Those who spoke requested not be named, fearing arrest by the police and revealed that their customers were flower dealers who then sold the poppy plant to others who export it to Europe.

In Njabini, the word opium is commonplace, in reference to the plant farmers until recently, knew only as a flower.

Mr Kamau's brother, who only identified himself as Mwangi, just like other residents defended Mr Kamau, saying there is no way he could have known that he had a prohibited plant.

He showed the Nation receipts issued by a Holland-based company, the final buyers in a chain involving middle men. The receipt only indicated delivery of flowers, not opium.

"Look at this. Nobody would grow it knowing it would be used for making drugs yet the dealers buy it for less compared to these other flowers," he said.

The receipts showed he had delivered 3,000 stems of flowers by September last year and the net pay was 223 euros (24,753 shillings).

Another villager told the Nation that dealers drove around in pick-ups selling seeds to small scale farmers with the promise of buying the
produce. The seeds usually bear different varieties of flowers, sold at different prices. During harvest, the same dealers move around collecting the flowers, issue delivery notes to the farmers and also take their bank account details.

Later, companies based in Europe wire money to individual accounts. In case of Mr Kamau, money was deposited by a company with the Holland address showing it traded in flowers. Unlike other flowers which farmers harvested their stalks, the opium poppy produces a round husk when mature and it what the dealers are interested in.

https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/68/688191_pakistan-kenya-uk-scared-kenyan-farmers-reportedly-uproot.html