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Kenya’s president, William Ruto, is attempting to legislate capital punishment for drug dealers. It is already a criminal offence to deal in drugs. The move is to increase punishment from as little as a modest fine to capital punishment.
He is targeting illegal brewers and heroin and cocaine dealers. The question is, will he harden the laws for all drugs, including performance-enhancing products used in athletics? For example, EPO, testosterone and steroids?
“It will not be business as usual for those dealing in brews and hard drugs like heroin and cocaine,” said Ruto.
Those found selling the products will have their vehicles and properties seized.
“The current legal framework will be amended to declare drug trafficking in heroin and cocaine a capital offence under the law.”
Under the new proposal, the sale of hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine would be classified as a capital offence.
Ruto argued that the trade is destroying families, fuelling addiction among young people and undermining the country’s future.
“People who are selling heroin and cocaine are destroying our children. Those who are selling or their children don’t use it themselves. They come to sell to other people’s children,” he said.
He accused traffickers of profiting from addiction while insulating their own families from the harm caused by drugs. Ruto described the practice as morally indefensible.
He said the state could no longer tolerate a system in which traffickers treat fines as a routine cost of doing business.
The government, he said, will move to amend existing legislation to provide for capital punishment upon conviction. He warned that drug abuse has spread into schools, residential estates and rural villages across the country.
The President warned that substance abuse had reached emergency levels. It is affecting millions of Kenyans and disproportionately harming young people and men, the country’s most productive population.
He likely will not move, including drug dealers of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), because often they are pharmacists. PEDs are not addictive or as addictive as recreational drugs. And PEDs bring medals, money and pride into the country.
Expect the World Anti-Doping Agency, Athletics Integrity Unit and the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya to continue to only deal with users in sport. Meanwhile, the dealers who are punished will likely be non-Kenyan sellers. “Sport enhancement” will likely not be included in the legislation because it is not, according to Ruto, “a hard drug.”
We will see.