Parents: Bhang, illicit brews fuelling suicides among children

**Karaini Mixed Secondary Principal Chomba Gituru displays an envelope containing bhang that he confiscated from students [PHOTO: MUNENE KAMAU/Standard]**

Parents have blamed the high suicide rate among the youth in two villages on alcohol and drug abuse.

Karaini and Mutuma villages have suffered11 suicides in the recent past, according to the parents.

The most recent suicide occurred on January 25 this year and involved Form Three student Alex Mwangi from Karaini Day Mixed Secondary School.

The school’s principal, Chomba Gituru, said drug addiction in the two villages had reached alarming proportions.

“Bhang and illicit brews are openly peddled within the periphery of learning institutions with all the impunity one can think of. Something must be done now to arrest the situation or else we will lose a whole generation,” Mr Gituru when residents held a demonstration against illicit brews.

Mutuma Secondary School Michael Mugweru shocked area MP Gachoki Gitari when he revealed that some students even steal school text books which they sell at a throwaway price to buy bhang.

Lost Books

“We have lost many valuable textbooks, which our bhang and kuber (also a drug) addicted students steal and sell cheaply to buy the drugs, yet when we bring this to the attention of the parents, they always defend their children,” Mr Mugweru said.

Residents of the villages located in Kirinyaga Central constituency shocked the nation when they stormed Kerugoya Law Courts to protest the release on bond of a convicted drug peddler Paul Muthii Munene.

The High Court in Kerugoya, presided over by Justice Francis Limo, released Munene on a Sh500,000 bond pending the hearing and determination of his appeal.

Mr Limo said those behind the protest were acting from a point of ignorance since convicts are entitled by the Constitution to appeal against their jail term within 14 days.

“As a court, we are guided by the Constitution, which is the Supreme Law of the land, and anyone who might wish to challenge the legality of the action we took, is free to file an affidavit with the courts and it will be acted upon appropriately,” he said.

Addicted Husband

A mention of the case is slated for March 8 when the court will fix a hearing date. Magee wa Magee is representing the appellant.

“Mr Munene is one of our own. He was convicted and jailed for 11 years last year and it is sad that now he is free to continue with the illicit business at the expense of our children. We cannot accept this,” said Agnes Wambui, a mother of a Form Two student.

Ms Wambui said she has single-handedly brought up her child after her husband became a drug addict and now only “stays in the house like a toddler”.

Jane Muthoni, a 50-year-old widow said she lost her drug-addicted son, Ephantus Muthii, last year after he committed suicide.

The MP promised to present a memorandum to the Head of State at Sagana State Lodge this week over drugs and second-generation liquor in the county.

Gitari said unscrupulous traders have used a loophole in the Constitution to obtain court orders allowing them to resume the illicit trade, which has been identified as one of the causes of suicide and the high school dropout rate in the area.

‘’We had succeeded in the war against the second-generation liquor but right now it is business as usual and I will not relent until the presidential directive on the matter is implemented to the letter for the good of our children,’’ Gitari vowed.