Nairobi — Interior Cabinet secretary Kithure Kindiki has termed the prevailing drug and substance abuse crisis in the country as a national emergency.
Kindiki said Monday in Nakuru during a stakeholders conference on combating drug abuse and trade in illicit drugs, that the current state of drug and substance abuse pose a threat to the to the future of the country.
The Interior CS underscored the urgent need for decisive action to safeguard the future of the nation's youth from the grip of addiction.
"The sale and use of illicit and toxic alcoholic drinks as well as narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances is a national emergency. It is not a small matter anymore. Unless we address this cancer of illicit alcohol and drug abuse with finality, we stand to lose the next generation of Kenyans who should take over this country when the current generation is gone," Kindiki said.
Even as the Government steps up its crackdown, Kindiki clarified that the crackdown is not targeting licensed traders in the alcohol business but those who are conducting the business illegally.
He warned all officers involved in the crackdown, not to use the excuse of this fight to harass, intimidate, extort money form legitimate traders and businesspeople who are engaged in the business of alcohol.
"This crackdown is on illicit alcohol, toxic alcohol which his laced with poisonous substances which is ruining the health of our children, men and women, breaking our families, and which is affecting economic development as well as narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances," Kindiki said
"In this process, any officer who veers away from the very deliberate and focused efforts of cleaning this country from dangerous substances and drugs, that officer will be on their own and we will take action without any further references."
The recent report released by the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) revealed that alcohol is the most abused drug in Kenya.
According to the report released on March 12, alcohol was found to be the most abused drug with 3,199,119 of the population affected, followed by Tobacco and Khat at 2,305,929 and 964,737 affected people respectively.
"The situation has been made worse due to the growing problem of drug abuse in our schools. The most abused drug in Kenya is alcohol followed by tobacco, khat, cannabis, prescription drugs, heroin and cocaine," NACADA stated in its quarterly report.
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The report also indicated that persons between age 25-35 years are the most people who consume alcohol followed by persons of age 15-24yrs.
Additionally, the men are leading in alcohol consumption than women.
"Prevalence of current use of manufactured alcohol states that 12.6 percent of male use alcohol while female stands at 2.4 percent," the report indicated.
The report further revealed that one in six Kenyans (4,733,152) aged between 15 and 65 is projected to abuse at least one drug or substance.
The 2022 NACADA report indicated one in every three males (3,783,854) aged 15 - 65 years and one in every sixteen females (949,298) were using at least one drug or substance.
The five-year survey reported the highest prevalence of at least one drug or substance of abuse in Western region at 26.4 per cent followed by Eastern 20.7 per cent and Nairobi 19.1 per cent.
