Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has called for a probe of university students who have overstayed in the school for years, saying that some may be engaging in illegal activity.
During the launch of a report on drug and substance use in universities, Murkomen expressed concerns about a trend that has been linked to rising drug and substance abuse whereby some students have overstayed in school for than expected.
“We will start investigating students who have been in the university forever. At the University of Nairobi, there have been notorious students who never finish school, and they are very rich and extremely influential, and they are in the leadership,” CS said.
National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA) Director Research, Standards, and Licensing John Muteti claimed that some of these students are involved in drug sales. “We need to investigate why a student is not leaving school, pretending to finish one course and move to another course sometimes or delaying their finishing school,” he said.
Murkomen asked Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja to increase security in police stations near colleges to increase investigations into the matter.
“We want intelligence officers to work with the universities, the university students and the police officers so that we get proper intelligence and interventions in dealing with drug abuse, especially with cannabis, heroin and cocaine,” Murkomen said.
Drug suppliers
According to the NACADA research, friends account for 66.4 per cent of drug suppliers, with data indicating that students are participating in drug supply and sales.
He advocated for the enforcement of legislation limiting the sale of inexpensive alcohol near educational institutions as part of the attempt to reduce teenage drug consumption.
The CS emphasized the importance of implementing legislation prohibiting the sale of affordable alcohol near educational institutions as a first step in fighting drug and substance misuse among youngsters.
“We need to ban these cheap spirits and funny alcohol first and designate the canteens to say you can sell certain levels of alcohol,” he added.
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He stated that the discovery that female university students have a higher prevalence of moderately severe at 6.4 per cent and severe at 4.1 per cent depressive disorders than their male counterparts, translating to 5.2 per cent and three per cent, respectively, raises serious concerns for girls’ futures.
On his part, IG Kanja, who was present, stated that he would not support anything that undermines the future of the youth.
He stated that to safeguard young people from drug misuse saying, “we will strengthen our efforts by involving the Anti-Terror Unit.”
The National Agency carried out the poll for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse.
By Joseph Mambili
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