•Mombasa county commissioner Gilbert Kitiyo ordered chiefs and elders to produce names of gangs and drug dealers in Likoni.
•Elders say known drug barons continue to operate in full glare of security chiefs
Image: ANDREW KASUKU
Several officials fighting the narcotics trade in Mombasa are in hiding after the main suspected supplier threatened them with death in the Likoni area.
Mombasa county commissioner Gilbert Kitiyo last week announced a renewed fight against drug barons and gangs in Likoni following a surge in attacks.
He spoke in Likoni last week during a security meeting bringing together chiefs, village elders and police bosses.
“These youths are known by local leaders. That’s why we want chiefs and elders to identify and make sure they are arrested,” Kitiyo said during the meeting.
Following the directive, local leaders made door-to-door visits to suspected gang members and homes of those believed to be selling narcotics to youths in the area.
Reports indicate that a known local narcotics career criminal, who has been arrested in the past over drug dealing, threatened officials in the operation with death warnings.
One elder from the Vijiweni area said after the operation, the suspected drug baron came to his house and issued death threats.
“He told me I don’t belong here and that I’m an outsider in the locality. He told me he would make sure I get back to my home as cargo,” said the elder, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Another elder from Shika Adabu said youths say the narcotics business is unstoppable in the area.
The two elders spoke at their hideout and asked the government for protection. They recorded a 'threatening to kill' report at Inuka police station under OB No38/3/9/2021.
Security chiefs have in the past threatened to arrest listed known drug barons in the county, but nothing much has been done.
Sources privy to the dealings say a couple that runs the narcotics trade in Likoni compromised the security network in the area. The couple continues to operate their enterprise without fear.
The illegal trade has led to increased violence in the area that has left scores of residents injured and a gang member dead.
Likoni subcounty police commander Joseph Karanja told the Star that officials had yet to record statements on the threats.
“I was away. I haven’t received such information from the elders and chiefs,” he told the Star on the phone on Tuesday.
Concerning the suspected drug baron, he said he is just three months old in the area and would not know the suspect.
Kitiyo neither returned phone calls nor replied to text messages about the alleged threats by press time.
Edited by A.N