Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen is considering deploying officers from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to crack down on drug peddlers fueling substance abuse among university students in Kenya.

Speaking during the launch of the Status of Drug and Substance Abuse in Universities in Kenya report by the National Authority for the Campaign against Drug and Alcohol Abuse (NACADA), the CS argued that there is an urgent need for a national conversation to combat drugs and substance abuse. 

“Why don’t we make sure that we have intelligence officers working within the university, with the university students, and with police officers? This will help us get proper intelligence and proper intervention in dealing with drugs and drug abuse,” CS Murkomen said.

In the survey that sought views from 15,678 students, NACADA revealed that alcohol is the most used drug as one out of two students admitted to using it. Overall, alcohol was the most available drug at 87.3 per cent followed by cigarettes (64.4 percent) and Shisha (41.2 percent.)

Notably, the use of marijuana was common among both genders with one in nine for males and one in 10 females admitting that they use the drug.

At the sme time, Cocaine is finding its way into local universities with one in 63 students reporting consumption of the hard drug. What’s more, one in 59 students reported using heroin, NACADA stated.

"The study showed that alcohol was the most (87.3 percent) available substance followed by cigarettes (64.4 percent), shisha (41.2 percent), vape/e-cigarettes (31.0 percent), nicotine pouches (30.7 percent), kuber (23.0 percent) and snuff/chewed tobacco (22.1 percent)," read the report in part.

Interestingly, whereas most university students get their drugs from close friends and neighbourhood canteens and bars, lecturers and university staff were also a major sources of drugs.

CS Murkomen noted that the government would be taking various measures to deal with the menace stating, "We are enhancing the Anti Narcotics Drug Unit in order to rein in the drug peddlers, who are killing our children’s future. We are also exploring other measures including boosting the capacity of police stations near universities to bolster their intelligence gathering and collaboration with other agencies in helping tackle the menace.”

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