Murang’a findings on alcohol addicts shock health boss
What you need to know:
- Mr Mbae, the County Chief Officer of Health, said that besides addiction to alcohol, some of the more than 5,000 people in need of help also had other diseases, including mental conditions, cancer and sexually transmitted infectious, “which the addicts were not even aware of.”
- A study conducted in 2010 by the National Authority for the Campaign against Alcohol and Drug Abuse found that 52 per cent of Murang’a residents had consumed alcohol at one point.
When Mr Joseph Mbae commissioned a survey in Murang’a County to establish the damage caused by alcohol, he was shocked with the findings.
Mr Mbae, the County Chief Officer of Health, said that besides addiction to alcohol, some of the more than 5,000 people in need of help also had other diseases, including mental conditions, cancer and sexually transmitted infectious, “which the addicts were not even aware of.”
Apart from malnutrition and dehydration, Mr Mbae found seven TB cases in the first 400 alcoholics tested.
After the survey was carried out, the county government set up a rehabilitation centre for the addicts.
A study conducted in 2010 by the National Authority for the Campaign against Alcohol and Drug Abuse found that 52 per cent of Murang’a residents had consumed alcohol at one point.
More than 80 per cent of the population was also “greatly concerned” about the abuse of illicit liquor in Murang’a.
The Nation interviewed 45 people from Murang’a, Kiambu and Nyeri counties.
Of these, only three said they started drinking because they were frustrated financially.
The rest said it was out of boredom, peer pressure or loneliness.
Mr Peter Irungu, who was seeking assistance at Ihura Rehabilitation Centre in Murang’a, said he started as a social drinker in 1989.
At that time, he said, he only used to drink during weekends.
Over time, he started drinking more often.
Mr Stephen Njonjoro, another addict, said he was working as a clerk at Equity Bank when he took his first sip.
Not long after, the drinking started getting in the way his job.
“I was fired eventually,” he said.
Interviews with addicts and experts appear to suggest that poverty is not the main cause of alcohol abuse.
Dr Mumbi Machera, a sociologist and demographer at the University of Nairobi, is one of the people who does not believe that poverty is wholly to blame.
“Poverty may be an intermediate cause that exacerbates drinking after the pattern is established,” she said.
The other reason for drinking that featured prominently was unhappy marriages.
At Mathari Hospital in Nairobi, teachers, lawyers and doctors make up the bulk of recovering addicts.
