A couple of things about the drug culture here in Kenya that I have noticed. There is this shrub called Miraa, which is considered an illegal narcotic in the US. Miraa is a plant that is grown in a remote area to the North-east of Mount Kenya. This is because of the area’s very specific environment, elevation, rainfall and such. After the twigs are cut from the plant it is wrapped up in banana leaves and is immediately, and hastily transported to wherever it is eventually sold. Such haste is necessary due to the shrub drying up and becoming useless within 48 hours of it being cut. Charles warned us that if we see a truck carrying banana leaves surrounded by white plastic in its bed, tearing up the road, to stay clear. He told us that they would blow any checkpoint and ignore any authority that attempted to pull them over, all to keep their product as fresh as possible.

            The drug itself contains an alkaloid that is a distant relative to amphetamine. It is orally chewed for hours producing a feeling of alertness far superior to caffeine; it creates a desire to converse rapidly and extensively, and also eliminates any desire or need for food. For these reasons the matatu or bus drivers, chew this product and run all night and day at great speeds and even greater carelessness. Some say that many wrecks occur due to strung out matatu drivers. The other day Maria and I were at a restaurant at one of the finer hotels in the area and I noticed a sign that said, “No chewing of miraa”.  Stores simply display a banana leaf hung up to indicate that they sell the product. If miraa is used daily and long-term, it can lead to an addiction. Miraa is not illegal in Kenya.

            Another drug issue, which I have noticed, seems to occur with the extremely impoverished youth seen on the streets. I have seen kids (ages anywhere from seven to fifteen) with these little bottles filled with a viscous, yellowish-white fluid that are suspended from a string around their necks or hidden in jacket sleeves. The kids will raise the bottle up intermittently and huff the fluid.  They will look stoned. We saw a kid working at a gas station, maybe ten years old, cleaning the ground with a broom in front of his adult coworkers, bottle around his neck and high as they come. This guy Sean that we met, who has been working in the area for many months, told us that the bottles are full of a toxic glue and he estimates that 90% of the kids you see on the streets, during the day and not in school, huff it. I told a youth with a glue bottle in his hand to “lay off the glue”; he laughed at me and asked for money. 

Bennett