The drug scene is not entirely new to Nairobi. “There has been cocaine here since I was 14 years old,” says one young Kenyan woman, who works for an e-commerce firm and is now 26. But whereas in the geriatric West recreational drug use is falling and many night clubs are closing, in Africa’s capitals it appears to be growing, both among the new middle class and the poor. Drug-use surveys are rare in Africa, but governments are worried.
Africans have consumed drugs for decades, if not centuries. Cannabis is grown and toked across the continent: the UN estimates that roughly 7.5% of African adults smoke weed in a typical year, almost double the global figure of 3.9%. In Somalia and Ethiopia, many men chew vast amounts of qat, a leaf with mild amphetamine properties, (much to the irritation of their wives).
The more recent spread of harder drugs such as heroin and cocaine is driven by the expansion of Africa as a transit route for chemicals on their way to Europe.
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