It will no longer be business as usual for drug barons and traders of adulterated alcohol as the government now shifts its enforcement focus to target assets and funds believed to be proceeds of crime.
Interior and National Administration Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kipchumba Murkomen has announced that the ministry will be engaging the Asset Recovery Agency at the Attorney General’s office to seize proceeds from the illicit trade.
He regretted that despite the efforts put in place to rid the country of vice, especially among children and the youth, the courts have been awarding lenient fines to the suspects who secure their release immediately and continue with their businesses unabated.
Speaking at the launch of the National Policy on the prevention,management, and control of alcohol, drugs, and substance abuse in Kenya, the CS stated that illicit trafficking fuels crime, compromises public health, and undermines the potential of youth, destabilizes families, and erodes the very fabric of communities.
In a bid to mitigate this menace, the CS outlined a number of interventions the ministry, through the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA), will undertake to stem the crime.
“We will be engaging the Asset Recovery Agency to see how best to make it more punitive first for those who are engaged in these acts, especially because they get very lenient fines,” said Mr Murkomen.
He said: “So maybe the best way is to take away the lorry, the car, their equipment, their businesses … the assets they have built over time and it’s important for Asset Recovery to appreciate that the law on Proceeds of Crime and Money Laundering as it is not only focusing on corruption but focusing on all crimes properly defined in the same law.”
According to CS, the focus on the engagement with Asset Recovery Agency is to make it more punitive to trade in substandard alcohol, drugs and other illegal substances, that rob the youth of their future.
“We have realised during the Jukwaa la Usalama public engagements why officers are targeted, especially by politicians,” he stated.
Mr Murkomen recounted how they receive many calls from political leaders complaining about OCSs stationed within their areas.
“They tell us…OCS is not doing a good job, oh… OCS so and so is fighting me and so and so is not supporting the government. We only come to discover later that it has nothing to do with the government, these are people selling adulterated alcohol, they are supplying these cheap sachets,” said the CS.
He went on, “When police officers take serious stands, they camouflage and come back either as government supporters or people interested in the well-being of their voters, only to realise later these are people who trade in illicit alcohol.”
The CS argued that if the government seizes their assets, then it can get money to build rehabilitation centres.
“Some of these proceeds from the accounts can be returned to build rehabilitation centres, create awareness and treat victims,” he added.
He also weighed in on the judicial role in the fight against alcohol, drug and substance abuse, revealing that he has told the regional and county commissioners to work through the court users’ associations to create awareness with the magistrates and judges they work with at the local level.
“The problem we have is these lenient fines and the high evidence threshold.
It is important to have evidence but maybe we should look at the penal code and see if there can be certain presumptions that if you don’t have a licence, it is presumed otherwise,” he noted.
He revealed that fighting the vice at the lowest level of administration unit, starting with village elders, assistance chiefs, chiefs and the OCSs is most productive.
He put on notice OCSs and other officers condoning the vice, saying they risk a sack and prosecution.
Story sourced from MINA Media
