By Kerubo Lornah THE Jubilee government has been urged to set global strategic plans to fight drug abuse in the Coast region. Kenya Muslim National Advisory Council chair Juma Ngao advised the government to ensure that those countries dealing with drugs are stopped.
Ngao decried that over 60,000 youths are affected with most of them being addicts. “The problem of drugs must be dealt with globally for it to end. We also want the government to declare the issue a national disaster. We are currently having more than 60, 000 youths aged between 12 and 20 who are drug addicts,”said Ngao.
Speaking to the Star yesterday Ngao asked the government to beef up Kenyan boarders to avert smuggling of drugs. Ngao further told the government to reshuffle officers who have worked in the same place for long. “When an officer has stayed in one place for long, he or she maybe be easily compromised,”
“Therefore, the government should reshuffle officers for instance from immigration office, police department, Kenya Ports Authority and Airports,” Ngao said. He added that the government should fast track the establishment of rehabilitation centers in the region.
“Currently we do not have even one proper rehabilitation center in the region. We only have private rehabilitations which are very expensive. We need the government to put them outside towns for instance in Kwale,”
“We have realized that once they are put in town-based rehabilitations they tend to run away,” he said. The chairman also challenged the government to arrest drug traffickers.
“Arresting drug offenders is not a lasting solution. Let the government get rid of the ‘big fish’ who traffics in drugs for this problem to end,” he said.
THE STAR
