ILLICIT DRUGS TRADE RIFE IN KENYA

The drugs/narcotics menace in the country is a serious problem that needs immediate and decisive government action on all that are involved in the illicit trade. Having lived in Mombasa for close to eight years I have had the chance to see firsthand the effects of the drugs on the youth and it is not any good. The Member of Parliament for Central Imenti has made very serious allegations against some former top-ranking officials in the government and we can only wait and see what the investigations that have been promised by the Right Honorable will reveal. It is however common knowledge that very senior people are involved in the trade.

The drugs trade in Mombasa is a trade that is done in the open with the full awareness of the security officials in the ground. The middle-men and the peddlers are well known to the police and it is not surprising to even find them having meals together or even in pubs drinking and making merry. The police also collect some kind of “protection” money from the “agents”.  In return the police notify them when a raid is about to be carried out. In some areas the police are known to collect more than 20,000 shillings on a weekly basis which is known as “pesa ya kiwanja”. This simply means that the agents pay the police for them to operate within a certain area.  If this money is not forthcoming that is when the police raids are intensified. The claim that the police are unaware of the illicit trade is just but a big charade.

ETHICAL MANAGEMENT AND GOOD GOVERNANCE IN OUR PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS

“A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world” Albert Camus

Ethics is about the guiding values, principles and standards that help people determine how ‘things ought to be done’. It refers to the judgements that people make and the process of arriving at those judgements. It is the process by which people make value-based decisions. Upholding the principles and standards of right conduct by public office holders at all levels of government is an important aspect of public service ethics.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), corporate governance is one key element in improving economic efficiency and growth as well as enhancing investor confidence. Corporate governance involves a set of relationships between a company’s management, its board, its shareholders and other stakeholders. Corporate governance also provides the structure through which the objectives of the company are set, and the means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance are determined. Good corporate governance provides proper incentives for the board and management to pursue objectives that are in the interests of the company and its shareholders and facilitates effective monitoring. The presence of an effective corporate governance system, within an individual company and across an economy as a whole, helps to provide a degree of confidence that is necessary for the proper functioning of a market economy.