Challenges of fighting drug abuse at coast

By Maureen Mudi

His haggard face and protruding veins on his thin hands depict the misery he has undergone for over eight years.

As he sits on the bench ready for admission into the drug rehabilitation centre, Ramadhan Hamisi, 29, is not certain whether the new path he has taken in life is the right one.
He is split between the hard life of seeking treatment for his addiction or moving on with ‘normal life’ of using drugs.

Together with his elder brother, Hamadi Hamisi, 33, they have been abusing drugs and have turned into desperate addicts.
They appear to be in pain, but they are aware that those are withdrawal symptoms after using drugs for a long time.

Bad experience

"I am sick. If I get a dose of the drugs, I will feel better. It is a bad experience. Many people cannot comprehend until they suffer the consequences of addiction," says Ramadhan.
If they persevere the discipline and rigours of rehabilitation, they will in four months be rescued from the snares of drug addiction that has wrecked thousands in Coast Province.
But they will probably have no families to go back to. Their wives took off after realising their husbands had become slaves of drugs.

The brothers had to leave their four children who were abandoned with them with their aged mother.
"We have children but what kind of help can we offer them if we are in such a state," Ramadhan laments, tears rolling down his cheeks.

Despite their plight, they are among the ‘chosen few’ who got admission at Muslim Education and Welfare Association (Mewa) Kisauni Centre, Mombasa.
Their experience is just a tip of the iceberg. Officials at Mewa centre estimate that 30,000 youths in the province are suffering addiction but have no place to seek help.

What started as an adventure for them has turned into a tragedy.
Without stable jobs and while just working as conductors, they required about Sh700 each per day to pump drugs in their bodies.

But for 34-year-old Sabri Omar, his is a sad story of rise from grass to grace and then back to grass after his involvement in drugs. He says he used to work at London’s Heathrow Airport’s terminal freight department in the UK.

He was jailed for drug peddling and other related offences while in the UK and later in Tanzania before being deported to Kenya.
"I had a poor upbringing. I was orphaned and my uncle who I lived with was an alcoholic. Within no time I started smoking and drinking," he recalls.
Abusing heroine, bhang, cocaine, white crest and injections was the order of the day for him for over five years.

No rehabilitation centres

He says he has several times been beaten by mobs due to his wayward behaviour.
While in Kenya, he visited a friend at the centre who had reformed. But he admits his initial attempts to join the program were difficult as he could sneak out to puff.
He has been at the centre for eight months and has almost fully recovered. However, he admits that the desire to take the drugs is at times high but one has to control himself.
Regrettably, despite the high number of addicts in the coast region, there are only three rehabilitation centres. Sadly, they all depend on well wishers to operate.
Were it not for sponsors and the Rotary Club, the brothers would still be suffering in their backyards.
Ms Amina Abdalla, a political activist, with the help of other people came to their rescue and donated Sh147,250 to ensure the brothers stay at the centre.
At Mewa, an individual requires about Sh43,000 to undergo full treatment including detoxification and follow-ups.

"We take up to 60 youths per year since the medication is very expensive," he explains.
The three centres in the region can accommodate only 60 males per intake.
Reach Out Rehabilitation Centre in Kanamai, Kilifi, deals with heroine addicts only and can accommodate about 25 males for six months.

Rejected by friends

The Omari Rehab Project in Malindi takes up to 20 male and females after undergoing rigorous tests.
But even after healing, most youths face rejection from friends and are hardly accepted back to the communities.
Amina urges the Government to set aside a fund to ensure youths rehabilitated from drug abuse get jobs to stop them from getting back to the vice.
It has been argued that idleness and peer influence are some of the major causes of drug abuse. They also contribute to increase of criminal activities and spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

"The Government should create opportunities for the reformed youths since exposure to the past friends and idleness will only land them back to drug abuse," she notes.
"If a jobless youth needs only Sh700 to buy the drugs, what else will he do apart from robbing residents and maybe killing just to get the money?" she wonders.
Mewa Executive Chairman Mr Hafish Sihabudin urges the government to boost such projects. "There is an urgent need to establish other rehabilitation centres to try and cope with the increasing numbers of addicts," he notes.
Ms Jennifer Kimani, the national coordinator of National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (Nacada) recalls how during a meeting in Lamu, some residents pleaded with her to allow them to take the drugs.
Police had arrested a suspected peddler and
confiscated the consignment. "I was left with no choice but to allow the addicts who had shown bad signs to sniff. And after they took the drugs, the meeting proceeded well," she painfully recalls.

But Kimani says drop-in centres would be set up at hot spots where drug abuse is rampant to ensure identified victims are counselled.

The centres, she says, would also be used to avail relevant information and boost private sector participation.

"Ours is a coordinating body and our main area of interest is the creation of standards for rehabilitation centres and keeping a register for all of them," she says.

However, she admitted there were very few centres in the coast region and noted there was need to put up more.