Residents want the youth engaged in heavy drug abuse sent to rehabilitation centres

As illicit drugs continue to take a heavy toll on the youth in Migori County, residents are now asking both the national and county Governments to assist in rehabilitating the victims and creating employment opportunities.
They want the two Governments to prioritise the establishment of a rehabilitation centre that would help counsel and rehabilitate the youth.
Kaler War Member of County Assembly (MCA) Tom Akungo said the two levels of Government should intervene urgently to address challenges of unemployment, drug abuse and illegal gangs threatening to tear apart the economy of the area.
He blamed the high rate of alcoholism among the local youth on frustrations, saying most of them were learned but jobless.
Speaking to reporters in Migori town, Akungo observed that most of the youth who abused drugs were from poor families, which could not finance such rehabilitation.
“The only facilities which can help rehabilitate these wasted talents are in Homa Bay and other far flung areas, and the families have nothing to do but watch as their kin walk away to the graves,” he said.
Mr. Peter Ouma, a retired teacher queried whether the constitution provided for affirmative action on the youth, arguing that the youth joining criminal gangs should be considered for easy recruitment in military and other national drives.
This, he said, will help the youth lead healthy lives and drop criminal activities that have dominated the area and led to high rate of insecurity.
A local youth from Kuria West sub-county Mwita Nyamohanga claimed that although the constitution guarantees a fair treatment of the youth by the state, implementation of the stated rights to the youth has always been skewed against them.
He cited Government bureaucracies, which she noted discriminated against the youth at the expense of their income improvement.
“The constitution indicates clearly that a third of the Government contracts must be awarded to the youth. However, this has been only on paper and the state has continued to abuse this, frustrating the youth who only plunge into abusing drugs and involving themselves in criminal acts in their attempt to release their stress,” said Mr. Nyamohanga.
By George Agimba