Post date: Jul 27, 2011 12:14:16 PM
Small scale Kenyan farmer arrested for unknowingly growing and exporting poppies for 17 years.
NAIROBI, KENYA (JULY26, 2011) (REUTERS - A Kenyan farmer arrested for exporting poppies to the Netherlands on Tuesday (July 26) said he had been doing so since he was a child along with dozens of other villagers and had no idea they were used for drugs.
"I thought they were flowers, I have been growing these flowers for years and exporting them oversees so I didn't know if they are used to make drugs," said the arrested poppy farmer, 38-year-old David Kamau.
Kenya has never had any significant trade in opium poppies.
Kamau said that he earned 30 U.S. cents for one stem of the narcotic plant and that the poppies were exported through a local airport.
He did not say who paid him or picked it up.
Confirming the seizure, the head of Kenya's anti-narcotics police unit, Sebastian Ndaru, said that prelimary tests showed the three sacks of seized plants were poppies.
Other smallholders in the tiny Kenyan village weighed in to defend Kamu, sayng dozens of them also grew poppies.
"We have never recieved any given information or complaint about that flower so we fail to understand how our farmers in this area are aware that that one is a drug, " said Kihara Mwangi a villager neighbouring Kamau.
Police in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa said they seized 196 kg (432 lb) of heroin valued at about $5 million and arrested six people in the latest step by authorities to end drug trafficking in the country.
The United States has said Kenya's position makes it an ideal destination and transit point for both heroin and cocaine.
Last year the United States said it had permanently banned four senior government officials and a businessman from travelling to its territory over allegations of trafficking narcotics.