Meth Is Replacing Older Drugs to Become Kenya’s and Region’s Biggest Drug Threat-Report

An investigative report reveals how synthetic stimulants are reshaping the narcotics landscape across Eastern and Southern Africa

July 21, 2025

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A silent epidemic is sweeping across Eastern and Southern Africa. While cannabis remains the most widely abused substance in the region, a far more dangerous threat has emerged from the shadows: methamphetamine. According to explosive new findings from the Eastern and Southern Africa Commission on Drugs (ESACD), this synthetic stimulant is rapidly displacing traditional narcotics and establishing itself as the region’s most significant drug menace.

The transformation of Africa’s drug landscape has been swift and alarming.

Methamphetamine, commonly known as “meth,” is no longer confined to isolated pockets of users. The ESACD report reveals a troubling reality: this crystalline substance is systematically displacing crack cocaine as the preferred illicit stimulant across multiple communities, even penetrating areas where such drugs were previously unknown.

“It is becoming the dominant substance used in a growing number of communities where it has displaced crack cocaine as the illicit stimulant of choice,” the commission’s findings state unequivocally.

The drug’s proliferation extends far beyond Kenya’s borders.

South Africa, identified as having the largest consumption base in the region, may now host one of the world’s largest methamphetamine consumer markets a staggering revelation that underscores the scale of this crisis.

Beyond South Africa, meth has gained significant footholds in Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Kenya.

A Crisis Born of Inequality

The methamphetamine surge cannot be understood in isolation from the socioeconomic conditions that fuel it.

The ESACD report draws a direct line between the drug’s proliferation and “policies and environments of inequitable, unsustainable development.”

The synthetic stimulant is “quickly occupying the deteriorating spaces of the growing number of marginalised and victimised communities facing limited opportunities for licit socio-economic prosperity.”

This analysis points to a harsh reality: methamphetamine thrives where hope dies, filling the void left by poor urban development, deepening inequality, and vanishing economic opportunities.

The Evolution of Consumption

Perhaps most concerning is the evolution in how users consume methamphetamine.

While the drug appears exclusively in crystalline form and is typically smoked, the report reveals an alarming trend: an increasing number of users across the region are now injecting the substance. This shift represents a dangerous escalation in both the drug’s potency and the health risks faced by users.

The injection method significantly increases the likelihood of overdose, addiction, and the transmission of blood-borne diseases including HIV and hepatitis.

For a region already grappling with public health challenges, this development represents a potential catastrophe in the making.

The Namanga Connection

The threat hit close to home in March 2025 when Kenyan authorities discovered a sophisticated methamphetamine laboratory in Olelopo village, Namanga, Kajiado County.

The facility, operated by a Mexican cartel and fronted as a poultry plant, represented a new level of international criminal organization penetrating East African borders.

This discovery wasn’t isolated. Intelligence sources suggest the cartel operated clandestinely, using Kenyan nationals to purchase land and establish operations to avoid suspicion a sophisticated approach that raises questions about how many similar operations remain undetected.

Failed Enforcement Strategies

Despite the escalating crisis, regional governments continue to rely on outdated enforcement strategies that the ESACD report characterizes as both “ineffective and harmful.”

The focus on arresting smallholder cannabis farmers and low-level drug peddlers has resulted in prison overcrowding, with some facilities holding more than 250% of their capacity.

This approach has created a vicious cycle.

Large numbers of economically disadvantaged individuals are incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses, and upon release, face “long-term stigma and limited job prospects.”

The result? “Disproportionately high unemployment and underemployment rates continue to plague people who use (or used) drugs, especially those who have been marginalised by a criminal conviction for low-level drug offences.”

Rather than addressing the root causes or reducing harm, current policies are manufacturing a permanent underclass of former offenders who face systematic exclusion from legitimate economic opportunities.

While methamphetamine dominates headlines, the ESACD report reveals a complex and evolving drug ecosystem.

Cocaine, in both powder and crack forms, maintains a presence across every country in the region.

However, crack cocaine has gained wider distribution due to its affordability, while powder cocaine five to seven times more expensive remains primarily accessible to users with higher disposable incomes.

Traditional drugs face new competition. “Markets for some drugs have emerged in places where they were not previously available.

Heroin and cocaine have moved from their coastal origins to inland countries,” the report notes, illustrating how improved transport networks and criminal sophistication are reshaping drug availability across the continent.

A Data Desert

Perhaps most troubling is what the report reveals about regional preparedness.

“In most countries of the region, there is no reliable determination of some of the basic marketplace denominators needed to assess a drug market, the harms it is creating or the relative effectiveness of measures put in place to address” the crisis.

This data deficit leaves policymakers flying blind, unable to design evidence-based interventions ormeasure the effectiveness of existing programs.

Without reliable information on market size, user demographics, consumption patterns, and health impacts, governments are essentially shadow-boxing with an invisible enemy.

The Youth Factor

Recent statistics paint an even grimmer picture of the crisis’s demographic impact. Data collected between 2022-2025 by Kenya’s Ministry of Health reveals that over half of the country’s drug users are under 35 years old.

This youth demographic shift represents not just a current crisis but a generational threat that could reshape entire communities.

The National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) has identified friends as the primary source of drugs, accounting for 66.4% of distribution a statistic that highlights how peer networks accelerate substance abuse spread among young people.

The ESACD report proposes a comprehensive response framework including four key findings, twelve recommendations, and forty specific actions.

Central to these proposals are calls for more reliable drug data collection, implementation of harm-reduction policies, and socioeconomic reintegration programs for offenders.

However, the commission’s warning is stark and unambiguous: “It is inevitable that meth will penetrate every other drug market in the region, and its availability, accessibility, and use will increase.”

A Regional Emergency

The methamphetamine crisis represents more than a law enforcement challenge it’s a symptom of deeper systemic failures in development, governance, and social policy.

As this synthetic stimulant continues its relentless march across Eastern and Southern Africa, displacing traditional drugs and creating new categories of users, the window for effective intervention is rapidly closing.

The choice facing regional leaders is clear: continue with failed criminalization strategies that have produced prison overcrowding and social exclusion, or embrace evidence-based approaches that address root causes while reducing harm.

The cost of inaction measured in destroyed lives, overwhelmed health systems, and destabilized communities grows with each passing day.

The methamphetamine epidemic didn’t emerge overnight, and it won’t be resolved quickly.

But acknowledging its scale, understanding its drivers, and committing to comprehensive solutions represents the first step toward reclaiming communities from this synthetic scourge.

What remains to be seen is whether regional governments possess the political will to abandon ineffective punitive approaches in favor of the evidence-based interventions that experts say offer the only realistic path forward.

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About This Investigation
This report is based on findings from the Eastern and Southern Africa Commission on Drugs (ESACD) and incorporates data from Kenya’s Ministry of Health and the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA). Additional reporting includes the March 2025 discovery of the methamphetamine laboratory in Namanga, Kajiado County.