Deborah Akinyi has been hooked to heroin for five years having ‘graduated’ from smoking bhang, which she was introduced to by a boyfriend she met on Facebook.
“I got a random friend request on Facebook in 2013. I scrolled through his photos and saw that he seemed a well-to-do man before I accepted his request,” she says.
The two got chatting for almost six months after which the man asked her to pay him a visit in Mombasa. Akinyi lived in Nakuru.
She stayed in Mombasa for two weeks and immediately planned her return within a month.
The man who ran a movie shop in the coastal town introduced her to bhang smoking. It was different from what her friends in Nakuru smoked.
Unknown to her, the joints were laced with heroin and gave her a different high.
“He used to lace my bhang with heroin telling me it was grade one bhang,” says Akinyi. “Right now, I cannot go three days without heroin.”
“I need to get my life on track. I need help,” Akinyi says.
Her story mirrors that of many other youths who are hooked, like Mohamed Issa (not real name).
Issa comes from a well-off Swahili family which has been trying to rehabilitate the 28-year-old in vain.
Just by looking at the ever smartly dressed fellow, it is difficult to detect that he is hooked to hard drugs.
He smokes bhang laced with heroin, something the footballer says he has done for years. He is has not secured a job with his diploma in computer networking.
“After completing my course, I thought I would get a job. After about six months of job hunting, I got frustrated. I decided to concentrate on football which did not go well either.”
The man, nicknamed Quaresma – after Portuguese player -says the trouble of securing a job coupled with peer pressure pushed him into bhang smoking.
“The biggest mistake of my life was when I tried weed while visiting friends after a friendly football match at Bilma Ground in Mwandoni,” he said.
He continued smoking weed with his friends but 'graduated' to buying the outlawed substance to the point of knowing the best peddlers in the coastal town.
One Hamisi told the Star he started using the drug when he was in Standard Seven and has tried to drop the habit in vain.
"My mother knows, but there is little she can do. In fact, she has started to smoke bhang of late," he says, adding that they buy the drugs from a supplier in Makupa.
In Mombasa, most youths hooked to drugs have formed criminal gangs which attack locals only to get cash for buying heroin, bugizi - rohypnol tablets, and bhang.
A former member of one of the major drug syndicates confided that it will take a lot of efforts to do away with the barons.
The former courier, who is in his early 30s, said drug dealers are extremely secretive and work with a long chain of distributors hence are difficult to reach.
“They have great connections in the police, court, Parliament and other regulatory agencies. Those involved rarely speak for fear of being eliminated,” the source said.
He revealed that heroin distributors move small doses of the substance in laptop and phone casings. “A number of politicians are involved. There will be no way out of this crisis unless the state invests millions on investigations.”
Areas in Mombasa such as Diani, Watamu, English Point Marina, private residences in Nyali, Light and Pakistan are the target markets.
