by Irene Mwivano
James Mwangi, 40, says alcohol allows him to escape from the hardships of his daily life. In fact, he says, drinking gets him through his workdays.Today, he refills his bottle before staggering away to get back to work in a local Nairobi street market, where he peddles electronics and carries vegetables for merchants at the local market with his handcart.
Squeezed into narrow alleys throughout Nairobi, small kiosks sell cheap legal liquor and other illegal concoctions, like chang’aa, a traditional alcoholic beverage that’s name translates to “kill me quick” for its use of dangerous substances such as jet fuel or embalming fluid. There are dozens of Kenyans, like Mwangi, who pop in and out of these kiosks every time they earn enough to afford a refill.
For Mwangi, refills of Kane Extra, a potent but legal brand of alcohol, sell for as little as 10 shillings, 12 cents USD.
Merchants say men and women between the ages of 15 and 60 frequent the kiosks multiples times each day, beginning as early as 8 a.m. for what they call “kujitibu.” Kujitibu refers to drinking the measured doses of liquor necessary to maintain one’s level of intoxication for as long as one’s body can withstand. Customers say frequent stops at the kiosks give them the energy they need to get through their “backbreaking jobs” in the oppressive heat.
Mwangi says he has been drinking during work for the last 15 years. He says in that time he has seen many people die or end up in mental hospitals because of excessive drinking. Still, he says he has no plans to stop visiting the kiosks for liquor every day.
Concern about drug and alcohol abuse in Kenya has grown in recent years, leading some to demand that the president and prime minister declare substance abuse a national disaster. Rehabilitation centers do exist, but many say they are expensive and inefficient or they don't know where they are. The government has made new efforts to regulate drugs and alcohol, but advocates say corruption and ineffective law enforcement will continue to foster addiction here.
Last November, Sheikh Mohamed Dor, a member of Parliament, MP, and the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse, NACADA, urged Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to declare drug abuse a national disaster in Kenya. Their requests came just days before WikiLeaks, an international nonprofit organization that publishes secret documents, released a 2006 report by former U.S. Ambassador William Bellamy accusing Kenyan authorities of protecting drug lords and cartels. The Kenyan government called the accusations malicious and said the U.S. government had apologized.
Just days later, Michael Ranneberger, U.S. ambassador, announced that four senior Kenyan government officials and one businessman suspected of drug trafficking were barred from visiting the United States, as part of a group of U.S. initiatives to combat the drug trade in Kenya. Kenyan police investigated the group, former assistant minister and MP Harun Mwau, MP Hassan Joho, MP Gidion Mbuvi, MP William Kabogo and prominent businessman Ali Punjani. Two weeks ago, police concluded there was not sufficient evidence to prosecute the group, according to the Daily Nation. The sequence of events has increased international awareness of drug and alcohol problems in Kenya.
Dr. Frank Njenga, NACADA chairman, warns that Kenyans are dying in record numbers thanks to drug addiction and substance abuse. Njenga’s announcement came after his agency released a report that revealed one in five adults in “hotspots” throughout the country used hard drugs.
According to the NACADA report, the most commonly used substance in Coast province is alcohol, followed by miraa, a drug also known as khat – a plant that causes “euphoria” when chewed. Among other drugs, cannabis is the most used, followed by heroin and cocaine. Twelve percent of children ages 12 to 17 were already reported to be active users of alcohol and other substances, while they were found to be more likely to use cannabis and miraa than alcohol.
NACADA’s most recent survey of Kenyans, conducted in 2007, reported that substance abuse is a major social problem in Kenya. According to the survey, the most commonly abused drugs in Kenya are alcohol and tobacco. In the years since the survey, usage has continued to increase, Njenga says.
For substances other than alcohol, 13 percent of respondents ages 10 to 14 and almost half of respondents ages 15 to 65 reported having tried them. In both groups, more than double the number of males than females reporting trying them. About 22 percent of respondents ages 15 to 65 said they were current users of at least one substance other than alcohol.
When it comes to abuse of drugs or alcohol, more than 60 percent of abusers reside in urban areas and 21 percent in rural areas, according to the survey. Young adults have the highest abuse prevalence, with Kenyans ages 10 to 19 accounting for half of drug abusers.
According to the former chairman of NACADA, Joseph Kaguthi, Kenya’s drug problem began when the country was a transit route for hard drugs. According to the 2010 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, INCSR, Kenya is a significant transit country for cocaine, heroin and khat. An increased quantity of heroin and hashish has begun moving through Kenya from Southwest Asia to Europe or the United States in recent years, while domestic heroin and cocaine production markets have also grown.
Kaguthi says that although hard drugs have gained a foothold in Kenya, alcohol and cigarettes remain the country’s biggest problems, contributing to the disintegration of health and families.
The NACADA survey on Kenya reported that nearly 90 percent of cocaine and heroin users, 44 percent of bhang users, and almost 40 percent of tobacco and alcohol users said that they had diverted resources meant for domestic use to buy drugs during the year before the survey. The survey added that drug and substance abusers are less economically productive, citing absenteeism from school and work, crime and violence.
According to the survey, substance abuse in Kenya is the result of optimal market conditions, including poor law enforcement, weak policies, unemployment, poverty, corruption and the breakdown of traditional values.
Drug and alcohol abuse in Kenya has also led to an increase in related social, medical and economic problems, including poor health, domestic violence, reduced productivity, increased crime, sexual violence, unsafe sex and exposure to HIV/AIDS.
Mwangi says some addicts seek help at local rehabilitation centers.
The most common rehabilitation facility is Kenyatta National Hospital Support Center and Rehabilitation Services, says Dr. Muhammad Mahmud Swale, one of its doctors.
“My work and that of my team is to bring back young people from the brinks of self-destruction through alcohol and drug abuse by offering them in-patient counseling,” Swale says.
In all, there are 41 rehabilitation centers recognized by NACADA that treat more than 1,000 patients a day. Kenyatta charges patients between 200 shillings, $2.50 USD, and 350 shillings, $4 USD, a cost that is prohibitive for many like Mwangi, among the half of the population who lives below the poverty line.
A cheaper rehab option is often found at Mathare Psychiatric Hospital, a government facility, which is less expensive than private centers, Swale says. But a lack of space forces addicts to wait as long as three months for entry.
Patients also say local rehab centers are uncoordinated and unregulated, lacking standards and guidelines.
“Just like other fields, there has been a problem with the standards,” Njenga says. “There are people who even operate from their sitting rooms and claim to be offering rehabilitation services. But we are in the process of setting up standards.”
Local authorities have determined minimum standards for residential rehab facilities and programs to ensure professionalism. The guidelines seek to protect clients from exploitation by ensuring that they get the services they pay for and to establish a system to mobilize resources and medical insurance coverage.
But the primary challenge in increasing participation in rehab facilities is awareness. Although the majority of respondents in the NACADA survey of Coast province agreed that drug addicts should be taken into rehabilitation facilities, only 14 percent knew of any facilities in their communities or regions. More than 60 percent of the respondents in the survey of all of Kenya said they were not aware of the available treatment and rehabilitation services.
Although the majority of Kenyans said they were in favor of restrictions on the sale of alcohol, new laws implemented in December created a fury of disapproval from local business owners.
Prevention of illegal drug use remains a larger problem.
Ranneberger says the substantial increase in drug trafficking in recent years threatens to impede economic growth in Kenya, erode its social fabric and undermine its hard-fought constitution, which was signed into law in August.
But both the INCSR and Ranneberger acknowledge that Kenya has also made progress in its fight against drug and substance abuse. In addition to its recent surveys, NACADA developed the National Strategy on Prevention, Control and Mitigation of Drug and Substance Abuse, 2009-2014, in 2009, as well as a National Action Plan on Drugs and Substance Abuse.
The number of trafficking arrests jumped from 67 in 2008 to 194 in 2009, while the amount of heroin seized in the same period grew from 3.7 kilograms of heroin to 8.5 kilograms and 2 kilograms of cocaine to 9 kilograms, according to the INCSR. According to the unit’s statistics, police intercepted and seized around 350 million shillings, or $4.3 million USD, worth of drugs, mainly bhang.
According to the latest police records, overall crimes related to dangerous drugs decreased from 2009 to 2010. But although crimes of possession and handling decreased, trafficking and usage crimes more than doubled.
