Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen directed that the government will burn a massive consignment of drugs worth Ksh8 billion seized in a joint security operation along the Indian Ocean shoreline.
Speaking to a church congregation in Kisumu County on Sunday, October 26, Murkomen observed the move is meant to send a clear message that Kenya will not tolerate drug trafficking or any other vice that harms citizens.
“As you saw yesterday, our multi-agency task force arrested Iranians with drugs in our waters,” Murkomen told the congregation. “The suspects will be charged in court, and soon you will see us incinerating the illegal drugs. We are determined to protect our people from such vices.”
The Ministry of Interior stated the drugs, weighing 1,024 kilograms, were 98 per cent pure methamphetamine one of the biggest drug busts in Kenyan history.
Six Iranian nationals were arrested in connection with the consignment and are being held by police as investigations continue.
The officials clarified that the drugs were discovered after the regional and international security agencies raised a red alert after a suspicious vessel was spotted in the Western Indian Ocean. The Kenyan authorities tracked and arrested the ship before obtaining a court order to search its cargo.
DCI Director Mohamed Amin stated various agencies were involved in the operation and termed it as a major victory in the fight against transnational cartels of criminals trafficking drugs in Kenya’s coast as a conduit.
Murkomen hailed officers involved in the operation and stated that the government was boosting maritime surveillance to deter any such attempts in the future.
“We are working extremely closely with our foreign allies in dismantling these drug networks,” he explained. “We are going to burn the drugs that have been seized publicly to show that Kenya is not joking with this war.”
The methamphetamine seizure is a big win for Kenya’s anti-drug war, which has seen the improved cooperation among the country’s law enforcers and foreign allies in recent months.
