Individuals who are interested in drug trafficking often have a few stages that guarantee the security of their business.
In stage one, there is access to plenty of money, but then the second stage often involves low pay and dealing with cocaine.
Then comes stage three, when drug barons begin manipulating officials of the state to eventually assist in helping grow the drug trafficking business.
In stage four, drug lords make and enforce their own laws so as to evade arrest by security officials.
Stage five is when drug barons invest huge sums of money into the economy, and this enables them to establish contact with politicians, which leads to stage six where a relationship is drawn up between the drug barons and politicians.
Alternatively, the drug barons may opt to sponsor an election campaign of somebody they feel will safeguard their interests, in which case an excessive amount of drug money is poured into campaigns to ensure a win.
Regardless of whether the drug baron supports a politician for gains or decides to run for office themselves, drug money is used in campaigns to ensure that there is a win.
Money is inevitably representative of a high level of influence.
Once the barons gain the opportunity to be in the leadership, or to have their preferred candidate in leadership, they become another government that is parallel and immune to prosecution, and it becomes difficult for either the Baron or his men to be arrested.
According to program called Peddlers of Lives, shown on a leading television channel in Kenya, politicians are often named by the Interpol.
Several members of parliament were involved in the illicit drug dossier. The underworld narcotics trade has been carried out by barons who also double up to serve as prominent politicians.
Kenya is a major traffic port in Eastern Africa, according to reports by the United Nations on illegal drug trafficking. Drug barons in Kenya import a huge amount of heroin from Pakistan and Afghanistan through the port of Mombasa.
In Kenya, most politicians who have been linked to the narcotics drug trafficking include William Kabogo, who was then the Juja MP, has been named in the U.S. dossier and was suspected to be in the drug-related killing of the DCIO.
MP Kisauni was also alleged to have been training drug dealers. And Gideon Mbuvi, who was the Makadara MP now senator of the capital city of Kenya, is among the suspected drug barons who joined politics.
The MPs in Kenya who were suspected to be in the drug business have opted to get into senior political positions that will help them stay safe and remain untouched by police and investigators.
In Tanzania, the MP for Kinondoni by the name Idd Azzan is one of the named drug barons. According to sources, the MP and other businessmen are dealing in drugs.
There is no political will to fight the illegal drug dealers and, according to opposition leaders in Tanzania, failure for President Kikwete to make public the list of those involved in the business, and the majority of the politicians of whom are in government, indicate that the government is not willing to fight drug trafficking.
According to reports by the United Nations, illegal drug trafficking and cultivation is rising tremendously in Africa.
The Ghanaian MP Hon. Erick Amoateng was tried in New York for the claims of being involved in the trafficking of about $6 million worth of heroin to the United States.
In Nigeria, a drug trafficker who had been in business for over 20 years opted to join politics.
Buruji Kashama had been involved in illicit drugs, and he was making sure he was not extradited by the courts in Nigeria. He had been a major financier of President Goodluck Jonathan and a powerful politician.
Jonathan lost in the March election, but Baruji rigged himself in. It is reported that Kashama had seen the possibility of President Jonathan's loss of re-election to office, even though he financially supported him.
He had to do everything within his reach to ensure that he was elected senator so as to ensure he would still be in a position to protect his drug trafficking business.
He succeeded to rig himself in as senator-elect but was still put under house arrest at his Lagos residence, according to a report from the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Eastern African route is a fascinating one for those involved in the business of drug trafficking, and it is used for international drug trafficking as well, with a significant rise in heroin trafficking in Eastern African countries especially the one that have origins in Pakistan, Thailand and India.
The largest drug seizure was in Kenya, which had a value of about Ksh 25 billion, and this was done on the coast of Mombasa.
Most of the drug barons in these Eastern African countries have now resolved to venture into politics in their respective nations to ensure they retain the power they need to continue the business.
There has been a push back on people who are involved in drug trafficking locally, leading prominent Kenyans who had been put in the narcotics trade toward a spotlight in the recent past.
The arrest of the Akasha brothers and their deportation to the U.K. and the listing of the well-known Kenyans happened because drug investigators who opened up a fresh analysis into the suspected drug barons on Kenyan soil.
The investigators triggered a new and intense investigation on the Akasha brothers, and they were tried in the U.S.
The investigation also targeted influential Kenyans who have since gone into higher political positions, and they have now acquired the power to ensure that they can carry out their businesses without government interruptions.
Some of these people even secured more powerful positions to ensure their safety, including Governor of Kiambu by the name William Kabogo, the Mombasa Governor Joho, Mike Mbuvi Sonko and Harun Mwau, who was a former assistant Minister, and Simon Mbugua and Mary Wambui, who are members of parliament, and the latter is believed to be the mistress of the former president of the Republic of Kenya H. E Emilio Kibaki.
When these politicians were named in the Ranneberger's dossier in the year 2010, they were in lower levels of political office.
Sonko, who is now Senator Nairobi County (2013-2017), was MP by the time the list was out. Kabongo Willian, who is now Governor Kiambu County, was by that time of the mention MP of Juja, and Joho was then an MP for Kisauni, but now he's governor Mombasa County.
The suspected barons were cleared by police to run for higher office in Kenya for a lack of compelling evidence to prosecute them.
All of them have denied these claims and blamed the U.S. government of conducting a witch hunt.
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