•The law introduces the offence of collecting, generating or transmitting information for use in committing offences under the law.
• “Today we have more than 8,000 young people on Opioid substitution therapy, this is a very huge number because our young people are being exposed to dangerous infections,” she said.
Image: GEORGE OWITI
The Ministry of Health is concerned with the rising numbers of young people injecting narcotics.
Youths who abuse these drugs are at a high risk of being predisposed to hepatitis infections and contracting HIV and AIDs, according to the MOH permanent secretary Susan Mochache.
She says that the infections are a result of mass injections using one needle.
“Today we have more than 8,000 young people on Opioid substitution therapy, this is a very huge number because our young people are being exposed to dangerous infections,” she said.
She was speaking at the National Dialogue with Regional and County Commissioners on Thursday in Mombasa.
“Kenya has a prevalently young population of 67 per cent aged below 29. We are worried because we cannot nurture their potential if we continue to condone this kind of destruction to their education,” she said.
This was after the Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act was gazetted in readiness for application.
The law was earlier on assented to and was on March 7, 2022, gazetted ahead of its application.
The law provides the framework for combating the abuse of narcotics, drugs, and psychotropic substances in Kenya.
It prescribes offences for law enforcement officers who aid or collude with persons suspected of committing offences under the law.
“A law enforcement officer or a public officer who aids or abets any offence under this Act including through concealing the commission of any offence or colluding with any person suspected of committing an offence under this Act commits an offence and shall be liable upon conviction to a fine of not less than Sh 20 million and imprisonment for a term of not less than 20 years.”
It further introduces the offence of conspiring with persons outside or inside Kenya to commit offences related to drug manufacturing, possession and trafficking in or outside Kenya.
The law introduces the offence of collecting, generating or transmitting information for use in committing offences under the law.
According to the State of the Judiciary and the Administration of Justice Annual Report for 2018/2019, cases involving dangerous drugs rose to 8,021 in 2019 from 5565 in 2017 representing a 44.1 per cent jump.
“There has been an increase in cases heard and concluded by the Judiciary during the period 2016 to 2018 under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act No. 4 of 1994 that confirms the magnitude of the problem,” the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse (Nacada) says.
The agency says between 2007- and 2019, 2,480 cases were filed at the High Court by convicted persons, who successfully appealed against the fines and imprisonment sentences imposed on them at magistrates’ courts.