Police are investigating the origin of a consignment of Pethidine that was intercepted in Nairobi while headed for Lagos, Nigeria.
The cargo was in 54 packages when police were informed it had been sent as a shipment.
In Kenya, the drug is controlled and classified as narcotics under the first schedule of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Control Act.
Pethidine is an opioid pain-relief medicine that was once widely used for pain caused by a range of conditions.
Pethidine is sometimes used to reduce labour pain in childbirth.
In the US it is classified by the DEA as Schedule II Controlled Substance, which means they are defined as drugs with a high potential for abuse, with use potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence.
These drugs are also considered dangerous.
On June 12, police said they were informed the cargo had been dispatched for Lagos and upon verification, they found the drug in 54 packages.
The shipment was seized pending investigation and further comprehensive analysis by Government analysts, police said.
This is as investigations on the origin go on, said the head of Anti Narcotics Unit Margret Karanja.
Officials say there has been a slight increase in consumption of such drugs in the country which is worrying, amid plans for action to stop the trend.
Cases trafficking of narcotics have been on the rise.
Police say traffickers now use roads as opposed to airports to carry out their business.
The most commonly trafficked narcotics from Tanzania and Uganda is heroin.
In 2019, the then European Union Ambassador to Kenya Simon Mordue said the Kenyan port of Mombasa accounted for 30 per cent of illegal heroin smuggled into the EU market.
Most of the heroin in the country originates from Afghanistan through the Indian Ocean.
Kenyan security agencies seized the second-biggest haul of cocaine weighing 100 kilos and valued at Sh598 million in 2016 in Mombasa which was disguised as sugar.
The case was however later dismissed in court.
