Dispatch from Mombasa

A drug addict injects himself with drugs Source: www.kenyancollective.com Recently, the coast of Kenya and particularly Mombasa witnessed heightened activity on what police claimedwas a major crackdown on drug traffickers. The crackdown ended up in total embarrassment as police did not make any major arrest and even those they arrested were released by the courts for the lack of evidence. At one time, the Mombasa County Police Commander Johnstone Ipara was seen briefing the media bragging how they had seized three thousand shillings in coins from one of the suspect's houses as if there is any law that prohibits anyone from holding coins. This must have been the most kneejerk reaction to combating drugs that I have ever come across and from the outset it was doomed to fail. Let me state why. I have lived in the coast of Kenya for the last two decades and I can attest that since getting here, there is nothing that grips the people of Pwani than talk about drugs popularly r...

In my neighborhood, we live at the mercy of petty drug addicts who are called “Teja ” Now a Teja is a person who is so addicted to hard drugs like bhang and heroin and will do anything to ensure that they get a fix of the substances. And their modus operandi is in a way simple yet lethal and has left tears in many a woman.   What they usually do is lay about on matatu stages just like any other customer. Mostly they will hang near the window of a vehicle and when it is just about to move, they will grab a woman’s purse and disappear mainly in the labyrinth of alleys that is characteristic of Mombasa.   Usually they work in a hunting pack and when a person shouts thief, the rest of the team will join in shouting thief in a way aimed at providing a decoy more than helping capture the thief. When they raid people’s homes they will steal small things like sufurias and spoons, irons and DVD players. If you get one in the cookie jar he will tell you he was just trying to see if...