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 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, he 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.
“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.”
