Teens frenzied in drug abuse: Nairobi women speak

I am a parent who has gone through a lot of predicament due to drug abuse. God has blessed me with a son whom I love and cherish very much. However, as soon as he finished school he started smoking bhang which has negatively affected him. Besides that, the one who supplies the drug is a close relative who resides in Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate, where I also put up. We have lived here for many years during which police have constantly attempted to have him arrested but has managed to offer them bribes.

One day my son came home and told me that he was going to kill me, he insisted that he would even sleep with me if I dared joke with him. Luckily, I managed to creep out of the house and sought refugee from a lady friend’s house. Later, I looked for elders and some neighbors and pleaded with them to talk to him and calm him.

I ask the government to help women, especially us in low-income settlements because our children continue to perish while we watch helplessly. My son is educated, and I have even managed to take him for a training course; yet his work now is loitering around the estate taking drugs. I am awfully terrified that one day I will be called to be informed of my child’s death. I call on the government through NACADA to offer us trainings so that we can also go and educate our children.

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I reside in Eastlands part of Nairobi. I have one son who has now taken to smoking bhang; he frightens all who visit my home due to his grungy looks, and actually resembles an animal. It has now reached a point that his father in some instances sends him out of the house and when he returns around midnight, the boy cries calling out my name. This usually angers my husband who affirms that he should not enter the house. This child is very intelligent; he passed his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education with flying colours from a day Secondary School in Nairobi. In fact it is from this school that he started smoking bhang. Now, he has gone to the extent of drinking chang’aa.

The chang’aa my son drinks is brewed and sold at a place nearby. Every morning you will spot a police vehicle parked outside the drinking den, collecting what we call taxes. I am saddened that this continues to happen yet we are losing our children in these areas. The boys here chew miraa, drink chang’aa and smoke bhang and became very wild. Here, you will find men and women lying on the ground drunk very early in the morning. 18 year old youth now resemble 50 year old men; they have refused to marry and all they do is stay home demanding food.

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My first born son is now approaching 50 years; a man with his own family with grown children. He has a serious drinking problem that started recently but has now blown out of proportions.

My son actually works very well while sober; however, when he starts drinking he becomes very dangerous thus a bad example to his children.

When he gets drunk, the only thing he does is sleep and fails to go for work, when he actually goes for work the money he gets never reaches the family, he spends it all drinking with friends. At times he visits my home but still drinks foolishly and as a mother I question his behavior especially cautioning him of its consequence to the children. Shockingly, he keeps on saying that it is not important for the children to go to school.

It is therefore important for the government to help us women. My son is not the only one, there are many like him in the estate I reside, furthermore we all know where they brew this chang’aa. One day, we collaborated as women and informed the chief of the place; to our surprise nothing has ever been done. I usually wonder why we provide the government with information and yet they don’t respond. How will they help us? Police do nothing while we helplessly watch our kids die.

When some of these kids drink they became wild, they can even kill especially if you deny them food. There is need for the government to contain this nuisance. As women, we are ready to work with the government when called upon, it is actually very painful to watch your child die yet there was something you could do. We cannot blame God; the government has the power to protect women and their children from the dangers posed by alcohol and drug abuse.

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