What Kenyans should learn from young Barack Obama to win war on alcoholism

At one point in life, the United States President Barack Obama was enslaved to drugs. Apart from having written about it in his book ‘Dreams from My Father’, this is a revelation that Obama made when he was a global household name, shortly before he landed the historical presidency in the United States.

Obama’s visit to Kenya this year falls nothing short of a God sent gift. Coincidentally, he comes at a time when Kenya is exposed to the ugliest face of alcoholism that the country has ever had to grapple with. In this regard, all slaves of liquor ought to converge in Nairobi starting 25th July, 2015, and request audience to an ex-drug devotee now at America’s top mantle.

In his book, Obama explores how he lived high on drugs, snorting cocaine when he could afford it and only going slow on heroine when he was not parallel with the dealer.

He comes clean, in earlier reports on international media to resorting to the habit to forget who he was, probably a failure. Fortunately, his turning over a new leaf acknowledged the very person he had earlier abhorred in himself.

Alcoholism is the basis of the now infamous Nyeri County. Down from an area once reputable for the won fight for independence, Nyeri is now a shame to Kenya. Estranged Nyeri women are on streets, lamenting over men who are buried in liquor dens, neglecting their duties. Those who cannot take it anymore have turned against the law, chopping off their husbands’ members.

And recently, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered leaders from Nyeri County to enforce revocation of licenses of illicit brew traders. The call has swept across the nation, with courts in the country opening doors to many accused of either selling or consuming illicit brew. So far, the achievement is great but the fight has a long way to go. The call is supposed to emanate from within a victim, perfect to US President Barack Obama.

In his book, Obama admits of having learnt not to to care. This is the attitude of the young men and women once they taste of the second grade brew, where there is no third category. The men are the worst hit. As the brew eats at their very core, they lose their masculinity to their wives.

The National Authority for the Campaign against Drug Abuse (NACADA) places its figure of Kenyans consuming illicit brew close to 4 million, in a survey that was conducted in 2012.  Other appalling statistics reveal the shocking figures of young lives lost to alcoholism to be close to 15,000 youths. They die from poisoning, accidents and other alcohol related incidences.

From the figures, it beats logic to conclude that the menace is eating Nyeri alone. Alcoholism is a countrywide crisis that should be addressed to save the next generation. It should be an individual decision of responsibility as it was with Obama.