Weezdom opens up on struggle with alcohol addiction, women and being broke
Lawrence Karanja, popularly known as Weezdom.
In the spotlight, a public figure can shine or easily lose it—and, sometimes, it becomes too much. And it is no different for artistes in the glare of the limelight, especially with social media, on which people have the power to lift you up or bring you down; to celebrate your strengths or expose your weaknesses and even ridicule you for them.
Social media can also put unnecessary pressure on people to live a certain kind of lifestyle. With the online exposure, sometimes people need to just take a break or even permanently log off to preserve their sanity.
Lawrence Karanja, popularly known as Weezdom, knows this only too well.
Known for his social media dramas, Weezdom has lately kept a low profile on social media and avoided unnecessary attention.
Behind the scenes, the former Gospel singer, and Kevin Bahati’s manager, has been battling alcoholism and depression that he squarely blames on fame.
Weezdom says that the pressure that comes with fame forces some celebrities to put on a show that they lead a lavish lifestyle even when they are actually struggling to make ends meet. And he is no stranger to this.
Weezdom confesses that since the beginning of this year, having parted ways with Bahati a year before, his life has been a roller coaster as he struggled to make ends meet.
Also read: No more love: Celebrity break-ups in 2022
“2022 has been a very difficult year for me trying to live my life and lead a celebrity lifestyle. I have endured a tough season,” he says.
“We all go through seasons at some point in life, but the expectations have been high because of the celebrity tag where the public expects you to maintain a certain life standard, forgetting that we also have shortcomings.”
With his stars not aligning as he would have wished, and coupled with the social media pressure craze, Weezdom says he found himself falling into depression and then went back to drinking to seek solace.
“I guess in that process of seeking happiness, I became grumpy and jumpy with relationships. I was all over the place with this woman and the other, nilikuwa kama mathree skai sana,” he adds.
Besides his troubled love life and the women he was involved with, Weezdom also had a tough time providing for his four children from his previous relationships.
“I was handling a lot. Bills were due and I couldn’t afford them. I couldn’t provide upkeep for my kids and baby mamas would never understand when you tell them you don’t have money because when they check out your social media, they see you with the who’s and who of the town.”
With the pressure piling every day, drinking became Weezdom’s release.
“I was always high and struggling, nisipotoa lock (if I didn’t drink in the morning) my body would be trembling and my day would be ruined. That’s why you could see me with this woman today and when she gets tired of me, tomorrow the other woman picks from where the other left,” he says.
Having struggled with his predicament from January, and his saving grace was the election period when he was hired as an emcee in one of the Kenya Kwanza political campaigns.
“It’s Honourable Jaguar (former Starehe MP Charles Njagua) who got me the job. Knowing my drinking problem, I always ensured whenever I am meeting Jaguar I wasn’t drunk. But [also] the nature of the job required me to be sober at all times.”
With the new gig, he was always up by 6am every day and would spend the entire day on the campaign trail.
“My day would start at 6am and end at 7pm. I resisted the urge to drink because I was spending most of my time with Waheshimiwa, so I couldn’t afford to mess up. This period played a huge role in turning [my life] around.”
And as much as on the outside he was doing fine and keeping off alcohol, he now had a new battle—withdrawal syndrome.
“My body would be trembling, my heart rate always high and I would be sweating because the alcohol had become part of the system and now I was starving it. Then one day while on the campaign trail, I fainted.”
He was rushed to Life Bridge Hospital along Thika Road, and doctors said he needed to be put on detoxification medication.
He was also advised to check into a rehabilitation facility after being discharged from the hospital, and his friends, among them Jaguar, Willy M Tuva, Sadat Muhindi, Dan Mutua, began fundraising to fund his rehab programme.
Weezdom was later discharged from hospital, and, according to him, he no longer needed to check into rehab. But he is working on himself, determined to overcome the alcohol dependency as well as to pull himself out of debt and be more financially stable. He also made up his mind to stop running around with women, and is now currently in a relationship with only one woman and is determined to make it work, he says.
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