North Eastern Regional Commissioner Nicodemus Ndalana has vowed to crack down illegal immigration, drug trafficking and contraband goods in the region.
Speaking after commissioning the newly established Hadado Sub County in Wajir, Ndalana tasked the local and national government administrators to ensure all routes that illegal immigrants and goods passed are blocked.
He said that people from neighbouring Ethiopia and Somalia have been crossing borders into the country illegally and reiterated that the government will close the routes and take firm action against them once found.
Ndalana asked police to be alert and do thorough searches of all vehicles to make sure that drugs are not brought into the region. “The truth is, there’s bhang coming from Shashamane in Ethiopia to Al bajan in Wajir and then it is transported to Garissa, Isiolo and Nairobi. We need our officers to be keen while on these routes,” he said.
“There is also a lot of contraband goods coming from Somalia and we know the proceeds will likely be used to fund Al-Shabaab. As a government, we will stop this business. We have already intercepted a lorry carrying 2300 bags of illegal sugar which is not safe for human consumption,” he disclosed.
On his part, Eldas MP Aden Keynan asked the local leaders and police to come together and strongly condemn drug abuse in the region. “The drugs from Ethiopia through these routes are destroying our children. We want to urge the government to intervene and seize those doing this business so that we can save our future generations,” he said.
Last week, NACADA CEO Victor Okioma met North Eastern regional and county security multi-agency teams in Garissa to chat ways of ending drug trafficking in the region.
The team agreed that drug trafficking in the region could be easily eliminated as it was not deeply entrenched. They promised to jointly work towards eliminating the problem.
Also, present were CAS for Environment Mohammed Elmi, Wajir West MP Ahmed Kolosh, area Senator Abdullahi Ali, Wajir South MP Prof. Mohamud Omar and Tarbaj MP Ahmed Bashane.
By Erick Kyalo
