Kenya MPs want drug lords identified

Parliament put the Executive under pressure on Thursday, accusing it of not taking the war on narcotics seriously.

Saying that the drug trade was a ‘‘national disaster’’, MPs demanded that the names of four officials fingered by the US ambassador as drug lords be made public.

Internal Security Assistant Minister Orwa Ojode was at pains as he tried to persuade MPs that his ministry was making serious attempts to take down Kenya’s drug barons and dealers.

The debate came in the wake of sensational claims in the House on Wednesday that senior government officers blocked investigations into the drug trade.

Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara said former anti-corruption boss Aaron Ringera, former police commissioner Hussein Ali and the director of police training college Peter Kavila had frustrated a senior detective detailed to crack drug cartels.

On Thursday in Parliament, Mr David Ngugi (Kinangop, Sisi kwa Sisi) asked the government to “reveal the magnitude of drug trafficking in the country and the measures taken by the government to combat trafficking and trade in drugs.”

Disciplinary action

He also said that names of the senior government officers banned from travelling to the United States because of their ties to drugs cartels be revealed, as well as the planned disciplinary action against them.

“Why has the government failed to act against these known criminals, considering this information on the trade is apparently available even to the US government?” Mr Ngugi asked.

Mr Ojode said he could not reveal the names because he was yet to received the information from the US embassy. When pressed, however, the assistant minister said it was only Wednesday that an official letter asking for the names was sent.

But names would not be revealed until investigations were complete, he said. “The only thing we have to do is wait for the names to be given to us in writing and we will definitely release those names once the investigations are over,” he said.

But MPs were not convinced that the government does not know the names of the drug lords.“Our own security agencies ought to be the first to know who are these barons,” Mr Ngugi said.

“How can the US government be the one to be getting information on our own soil, on threats to our own citizens, before our own security agencies?”

“The ambassador of America has these names of senior government officials, yet they are saying they have not received them,” Kiema Kilonzo (Mutito, ODM-K) asked incredulously. “Why have you not summoned him? Is it that you’re not interested?”

MPs berated Mr. Ojode for his ‘‘casual’’ approach to the issue. “Maybe the minister can tell us how far his ministry is involved in protecting those barons, because he doesn’t seem serious to tackle this national disaster,” Mr Ngugi spat.

Documents tabled in Parliament on Wednesday by Mr Imanyara indicate that Mr Ali, Mr Ringera and his deputy John Mutonyi and Mr Kavila, then Coast deputy police boss frustrated investigations into drug trafficking at the Port of Mombasa.