Concerns over Alcoholism among youth

Murang’a,

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

KNA by Purity Mugo

In spite of the government’s spirited fight against alcoholism and illicit liquor in the country, elders in Kangema, Murang’a County, decry the continued availability of the illicit alcohol in the villages.

The elderly members of the community who had assembled at Kiamara shopping centre for a meeting with Murang’a Woman Representative Betty Maina said they have been living in misery as their children fall into the snare of addiction.

One of the elderly women, Njoki Mwangi, said alcoholism has become a burden especially for elderly women who are forced to contend with verbal and sometimes physical assault as they take care of their grown sons.

“We no longer sleep peacefully because they knock on our doors late at night asking for food after spending their days in the shopping centres drinking,” she said.

Majority of these men, Njoki said, are separated from their wives because of heavy drinking and she wondered why bars were allowed to sell brands of alcohol that were clearly detrimental to consumers’ health.

 She also gravely noted that their daughters had not been spared by the illicit brews and because of dependence on the alcohol, they would give birth and leave their children under the care of their elderly parents who were unable to fend for them and struggled to bring them up.

According to Njoki, many women benefiting from the cash transfer programme that gives elderly persons, orphans and the vulnerable members of the society Sh2,000 monthly don’t enjoy the money because it is forcefully taken away from them by their sons who then use the money to buy alcohol.

“Some old people are even beaten up for it by their children so every time they receive the money, they have no peace because they know they can be assaulted any time,” she lamented saying many others use that money to take care of grandchildren left under their care.

George Wamugunda, another Kangema resident, confirmed that most youths lived in a drunken stupor and do not work at all.

“Nowadays, both young men and women drink alcohol that is harmful to their bodies and their homes are a mess, no one can help the other,” he said adding that The Deputy President who has been the force behind fighting alcoholism should know that it is still widespread in the villages.

Wamugunda narrated that traditionally, it was against customs for youthful men to drink and men would only be allowed to take alcohol once they married off their daughters.

“Go tell the government that we don’t want that kind of alcohol here and we would rather return to the traditional ones that do not affect people’s health so much,” Wamugunda lamented.

Another elder, Peter Muriithi, observed that if the harmful drinks were not stopped from the source, all the other efforts the government has been making would be in vain.

“The harmful alcohol is cheaply available. If they were not available, would people be in bars drinking them?” he wondered.

“We are old but we have been left with small children, our grandchildren who our children cannot feed and we cannot allow them to go hungry,” he said.

Area MP Peter Kihungi stated that for the fight against alcoholism to be successful, the authorities would have to focus on the sources of poisonous alcohol brands and eradicate them.

While applauding the President and his deputy for making efforts to curb alcoholism in the country, Kihungi said the biggest challenge was the availability of alcohol.

“If we don’t deal with the source, then it does not matter how much we fight alcoholism in the grassroots. It will still thrive,” he said.

Kihungi observed that the effects of alcoholism could be strongly felt in the tea zones where farmers were forced to employ youths from other communities as farm hands because local youth spent their time in drinking holes.

He said many parents are in pain as they watch their children being rendered unproductive and lose direction in life.

MP Betty Maina, on her part, noted that if youths were economically productive, a smaller number of the elderly would need to be supported by the government as their children would support them instead.

“It is painful for a parent to have to take care of grown children watching them drink every day after struggling to educate them,” she said.

She argued that the economy has been hit far worse by the adverse effects of the poisonous alcohol brands than it has gained from the revenue they generate for the government.

She said that the unmanageable levels of alcoholism have been fueling sexual assaults on girls and women in the villages.

“I will not be afraid of speaking out against these people opening bars in villages and selling this alcohol. If they don’t vote for me in the next elections so be it,” she said.

Maina was distributing blankets and foodstuffs to hundreds of elderly people to shield them from the cold that may accompany the expected Elnino rains.  

Courtesy; KNA