Paper short abstract:

This paper will discuss the dynamics of heroin markets in Kenya vis-à-vis containment efforts by state-mandated actors, international agencies and local communities. By analysing how formal institutions address the drug trade, I will challenge Weberian conceptualisations of the African state.

Paper long abstract:

The past few decades have witnessed the emergence of a booming heroin market in Eastern Africa, resulting from longstanding maritime intercontinental routes of transshipment. Kenya, in specific, is now battling mounting addiction levels, highly evident in its coastal province. In light of these recent developments, this paper will address the dynamics of the Kenyan heroin trade vis-à-vis containment efforts on the part of state-mandated actors, international agencies and local communities. I will discuss the work of the police and the anti-narcotics unit, as well as their agents' operations at the intersection of the legal and illegal. By questioning the ability of formal institutions to gauge the magnitude and subsequently - to control the heroin trade in Kenya, this paper will challenge Weberian conceptualisations of the African state. At the same time, I will also analyse the role of community-based responses to the nefarious effects of the distribution of heroin. In peripheral areas such as the Kenyan coast, which is also marked by a strong secessionist discourse, it is important to be able to understand the interfaces between the transnational drug syndicates responsible for popularising heroin use and the highly localised undertakings to combat these initiatives. Analysing data outcomes from extended ethnographic fieldwork in Nairobi and along the Kenyan coast, I will aim to answer two pivotal questions. Where and how do state organs of policing and control interfere in the heroin trade? How do they mould the image and role of the Kenyan state in everyday socio-political practices?