{"id":3635,"date":"2026-01-04T21:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T21:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/3635\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T21:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T21:18:09","slug":"governor-nassir-backs-death-penalty-for-drug-traffickers-calls-for-ban-on-muguka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/3635\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor Nassir backs death penalty for drug traffickers, calls for ban on Muguka"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir\/HANDOUT<\/p>\n

Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir has backed President William Ruto\u2019s call for the death penalty for drug traffickers and peddlers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking on Sunday at Africa Divine Church in Nyali, he\u00a0warned that the narcotics trade continues to pose a serious threat to society, particularly in Kenya\u2019s Coast region.<\/p>\n

He went on to say that\u00a0the scale of drug abuse in Mombasa had reached alarming levels, with health facilities bearing the brunt of the crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He cited data from Port Reitz County Hospital indicating that more than half of admissions in recent months were linked to drug use.<\/p>\n

\u201cI support President William Ruto\u2019s call for the death penalty for drug traffickers and peddlers. The narcotics trade continues to be a grave threat to society, especially here at the Coast,\u201d Nassir said.<\/p>\n

According to the governor, hospital records from July, August and September show that over 50 per cent of patients admitted at Port Reitz County Hospital were affected by drug-related conditions, largely attributed to the use of jaba, also known as muguka.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Port Reitz County hospital, statistics for July, August and September over 50% of those admitted is because of Jaba (Muguka),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nassir reiterated his long-standing opposition to the presence of muguka in Mombasa, saying he had consistently warned against its introduction into the county.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI am among the first people who said Muguka should never have been allowed to enter Mombasa,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

While supporting harsher penalties for traffickers, the governor stressed that the fight against drugs must also address substances that are currently legal but harmful, particularly to young people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He warned that muguka, widely traded as a cash crop, was increasingly contributing to addiction and social problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat said, we must also wake up to the threat that other substances such as Muguka pose to our youth,\u201d Nassir said.<\/p>\n

He called on Parliament to urgently review existing laws governing the crop, urging legislators to reclassify it from a cash crop to a harmful drug.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI urge our legislators to consider legislative amendments to formally eliminate Muguka from the schedule of cash crops and classify it as a harmful drug,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nassir argued that decisive national action was needed to curb substance abuse and protect families from the long-term effects of addiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need decisive national action to protect our families and future generations,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s remarks come amid renewed national debate on drug trafficking, capital punishment and the regulation of muguka, with the government under pressure to balance public health concerns, law enforcement and economic interests tied to the crop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir\/HANDOUT Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir has backed President William Ruto\u2019s call for the death penalty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[3061,3059,80,3060,3058,785,98,100,101,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-3635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kenya","8":"tag-abdulswamad","9":"tag-death-penalty","10":"tag-kenya","11":"tag-muguka","12":"tag-nassir","13":"tag-ruto","14":"tag-star-news","15":"tag-star-news-kenya","16":"tag-the-star","17":"tag-the-star-newspaper"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}