DP Kindiki Announces Crackdown on Drugs in Schools

The government on Saturday, December 7 vowed to crack down on peddlers and traffickers of drugs like bhang to school-going children.

Deputy President Kithure Kindiki, while addressing Kenyans at the Chepsaita Cross Country Run, issued the declaration asserting the government’s intent to get rid of drug traffickers in the Rift Valley region and Kenya by extension.

At the same time, he condemned reports indicating increased usage and sale of the hard drugs while pledging that the government would enforce stringent measures to see to the eradication of the vice.

“Those who are selling drugs to the young people of Kenya are enemies of Kenya. I want to assure you today of the government’s stand towards combating the sale of drugs that promote drug abuse and hamper the progress of our young people in Kenya,” Kindiki asserted.

“On behalf of the government, I want to declare today that we will fight against such people and we will succeed,” he added.

Kindiki while referencing his time as the Interior Cabinet Secretary, asserted that the government will use the ruthlessness meted out to bandits who had ravaged the North Rift to deal with the drug traffickers. 

“In my time as the Interior CS we waged a way against those dangerous criminals (bandits) who were destroying the future of our country and managed to make great progress,” he noted.

“The same energy that we used to destroy those characters and criminal groupings is the same energy we are going to use to dismantle criminals who are selling drugs like bhang to our school-going children,” Kindiki asserted.

The issue of drug abuse in schools has been a problem over the years. The National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) reports that a considerable percentage of secondary school students have experimented with various substances, including alcohol, tobacco, khat, prescription drugs, and cannabis. 

A 2019 survey found that 23.4 per cent of secondary school students had used drugs or alcohol at least once, with alcohol, tobacco, and khat being the most accessible substances within the school environment.     

Further, Kindiki took the opportunity to lay the law on the increased surge in doping cases in the country. In 2024, the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) provisionally suspended 33 athletes across various sports for violations. As of October, the World Athletics listed 11 Kenyan athletes banned from competition.

“There are people who are out to taint the great reputation and brilliance of our sports sector in Kenya. These people are those who go out to source for performance-enhancing drugs to give to some of our athletes and sportspersons to give them an unfair advantage during competitions,” he stated.

“I want to say this. The greatest enemy to Kenya’s dominance in sports, especially in athletics, is the characters who are selling performance-enhancing drugs. These people promote doping and make our sportsmen and women compromise on their standards,” he maintained.

 “The government will stand firm and will fight all those criminals that are spoiling our sports by introducing doping to our athletes,” Kindiki averred.