At least ten people are dying every month as a result of alcohol related complications in Nandi County.
National Authority for the National Campaign against Drug Abuse Authority (NACADA) Board member Elijah Lagat said he has been receiving such death reports across Nandi Sub-Counties, where there is deep rooted alcoholism.
According to Lagat, who is also a former MP for Konoin constituency, youths and middle aged men who are supposed to be more productive members of the society were the most affected by the menace and now the country risks losing healthy personnel to champion economic development.
He appealed to the local political and opinion leaders as well as the church to aggressively help save the youths from the danger of drug addiction.
The former MP specifically called on churches which mostly interact with the youths right from childhood to continue inculcating accepted behavior to our children from an early age, so that they grow into responsible citizens.
To heal those already ruined by the vice, the NACADA board member proposed that churches should set up rehabilitation centres to deal with extreme cases of drug addiction and alcoholism.
Lagat, who spoke when he met church leaders at Grace Chapel Church in Kapsabet town, said there was need for religious groups to redefine their approach of dealing with cases of alcoholism and drug addiction in the society.
He further asked school boards of management to deal decisively with cases of drugs, now common in some schools.
Expressing fears that more innocent youths were now consuming second generation brews, which had long term adverse health effects, Lagat also decried that some chemists within Nandi County were injecting addictive hard drugs to the young people.
He urged the police to investigate rogue chemists involved in such illegal business and close them to prevent further damage to the victims.
Lagat challenged the Nandi County Government to periodically review the existing liquor licensing laws and revoke for those operators found in contravention.
On his part, the Director of Association of Pentecostal and Evangelical Clergy of Kenya, Wilson Kosgei, who was present said the church has embraced home based rehabilitation and setting of Wellness Camp to deal with cases of alcoholism and drug addiction.
“We can use rehabilitated youths to change the society, for instance planting trees to better our environment and doing other societal work,” he said.
Kosgei revealed that they are working together with NACADA to bring down cases of drug abuse and alcoholism across the country.
By Geoffrey Satia
