Drug use increasing in Kenya’s coastal communities

According to a report funded by the European Union, Kenya’s coastal communities are experiencing an increase in heroin use as international drug traffickers use them as transfer stations for the drug trade, increasing the area’s social and health problems.

The study team conducted hundreds of interviews in Southern and East Africa. East Africa’s coast is becoming increasingly important in the global heroin trade. Smugglers ship heroin from Afghanistan through a network of coastal routes along Southern and East Africa. They are stepping up their use of this drug trade corridor, known as the ‘southern route’, to ship illegal drugs to Western Europe. The report said that the drug trade had recently had a severe impact on the Kenyan coastal cities of Lamu, Malindi, and Mombasa.

Simone Haysom, a senior analyst with the research team, said that the health risks facing the Kenyan coastal communities included contracting hepatitis C and HIV. She also noted that these communities were increasingly marginalising drug users. In Mombasa, mobs have murdered, burned, or stoned people accused of using drugs. The increase in drug use and its associated problems is also hurting the region’s image, which has catered to tourists wanting to enjoy its beaches and sunshine.

Researcher, Ciara Aucoin, said that the region’s high rate of unemployed youths made it especially susceptible to drug abuse and the crime associated with it. “That combination of poverty, youth bulge, and unemployment leads to this powderkeg…in terms of drugs and violence,” she said.