Growing up in a family of 10 siblings in Mayoyo village in Lwandeti Location in Kakamega County, Lairuka Jackson Sindani would observe his father, who was a principal “enjoy” his beer.
He vividly remembers one time after finishing the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education(KCSE) Exams paper, out of peer pressure, they sneaked out of school and went to drink chang’aa - a local brew.
“We took it with one of my friends who these days has also stopped taking alcohol and that’s how the seed of alcohol may have taken root,” said Sindani during a recent interview with Health And Science Standard in Kakamega town, where he works as Principal Assistant to the County Commissioner.
He added: “I scored a B+ and proceeded to Egerton University. There we were allowed to take alcohol and so I did. I felt to think that there was no problem with learned people taking alcohol. Being in campus, I considered myself learned. To me, given that my father took alcohol, he was very successful because he was a high school principal, owned a pickup, had a permanent house and was educating all of us, beer was cool.”
A Bachelor of Arts in History (BA-History) and Masters of Business Administration (Finance) graduate, Sindani was appointed in 2010 as District Officer (DO) before the title changed to Assistant County Commissioner (ACC) when the current Constitution came into force.
“My parents were teachers and were therefore not brewers. They were tough, especially my mom, and would allow us take alcohol. You would receive very serious lashes from my mom if you appeared drunk. My father did not all us to drink but he enjoyed his bottle. To me he was a gentleman because he took beer and not chang’aa.” says Sindani.
He adds: “Our neighbours, who were my father’s siblings used to brew chang’aa and hide it in our nappier grass plantation. They did this because they knew policemen wouldn’t come there looking for it since my parents were respectable people. Sometimes while cutting Napier grass for the cattle I would stumple on chang’aa and gulp some.”
Even in high school, he says his parents never knew that he was experimenting with alcohol. He says his performance was cool and yet he was a drunkard.
When he went to the university, Sindani says he believed that as long as one is schooled, there's nothing wrong with taking beer, which he considered classy.
“As university students, we had the Higher Education Loans Board(HELB) loan and money from your parents. This was in your control and you would use it as you wish including taking alcohol,” he says.
He adds: “But alcohol wasn't bad then. I was drinking and it wasn't affecting my daily activities; I was functional. So I went on until I finished university.”
Sindani says he even worked in the back office at one of the local banks in the Upper Hill area in Nairobi as a graduate clerk, then called admin assistants, two years after graduation, without alcohol related challenges or so he thought.
He later left the bank and took up government employment as a DO and was posted to Mumbuni Division, Mwingi Central District, Eastern Province.
Being “mkubwa”, whenever he went to a club, locals were so generous to him. They would buy him a lot of beer.
“So you feel good but still I was in control, or so I thought. After some years of drinking alcohol, I could drink without eating, but I but was still able to work because it was not a must that I should be at the office every day,” he says.
Sindani discovered that alcohol had taken a toll on him around 2016, when one time when he went for a work meeting at the Deputy County Commissioner’s office. When they were going for lunch, he was climbing a steep place and he almost stumbled.
“I actually almost fell, but a colleague helped me. So, I didn't know that that was a problem. I had lunch and drunk a few beers before driving off to my station,” says Sindani.
He adds: “Once at my station, I parked my car and went straight to my chief’s bar and continued drinking. At around 11:00 pm, I stood up to go, but my legs were weak and fell. I was assisted to my house. I slept well but in the morning I couldn’t stand up or walk.”
Alarmed, he called his boss who send a vehicle for him to be taken to a nearby hospital. He was given drugs but there was no change.
He called his sister, who organised travel for him to Nairobi.
Sindani went to a medical laboratory for tests as soon as he arrived in Nairobi. The tests found that he was suffering from alcohol induced peripheral neuropathy. He was given Neuro Forte vitamins supplements to treat the same.
Neuropathy is a general term for damage to the nerves outside your brain and spinal cord. Common Symptoms are tingling and numbness in the hands and feet that can spread upward, sharp, burning, or stabbing pain, muscle and nerve weakness or loss of coordination.
“So I went to the house expecting to be healed the following day but when I woke up, nothing had changed. So I went to The Mater Hospital where tests were done and confirmed that I was suffering from peripheral neuropathy,” he says.
He was given medicine but told it may not work instantly. He was advised to relax. So, he stayed for almost three months when the situation started to get better.
“I was shocked and told myself that if this is where alcohol is taking me, I have to stop,” says Sindani, who is now using Facebook to help other Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) patients to embark on alcohol recovery.
He adds: “I stopped for almost two years. I was scared that this is how it will be after the doctors just told me this is alcohol.”
Sindani was advised to stop drinking alcohol and eat well; after some time he shall be well.
He was later transferred to Sindo in Homa Bay County in Nyanza region.
The government official says he had stopped for almost two years, but the locals told him just taste one and he almost drank 15 bottles that day.
“I could stop on my own, then drink again. It was the same thing. I could stay for three months then go drink again,” he says.
The last time he drank, which brought him problems after he had stopped was in January 2023.
In December 2022, together with his family which had joined him in Lambwe, Homa Bay, they suffered food poisoning after eating fish.
They were there over Christmas 2022 but couldn’t get better. Since they were not getting better, he decided to ask for permission and go home with the family and seek better treatment.
“I decided right away to write a message to my boss to the effect that I was unwell and was going away for two weeks off. He didn't reply, but I proceeded anyway. After three days, he replied the message, saying he cannot allow that kind of behaviour where I ask for permission via a text message and asked me not to repeat that,” says Sindani.
He adds: “He didn't tell me to go back, so I thought the matter was settled. After ten days, my boss called and asked how is the area I am supposed to be incharge. I told him I don't know because I am not around. Furiously, he shouted, seemingly drunk, asking me to go pick up your letter.”
Sindani picked the letter and went to see his boss but he told him he cannot come to see him when the disciplinary process had begun but to let it go its logical conclusion.
From here, Sindani was stopped; he was working without pay. He turned to alcohol for solace marking his relapse.
“This one was terrible. I drank and went to sleep hoping that in my drunken stupor, I would wake up dead. I was trying to imagine now how terrible life was going to be,” says Sindani.
He adds: “So I drank properly, I started going to the bar and drinking without money and even resorted to Chang’aa.”
His transformation began when he went to drink in a hotel without money.
“I slept there till morning since I couldn’t pay. They called my sister who called my brother and who called the County Commissioner who send for me,” he says.
And that time, he says he was looking terrible because even walking around was impossible because the big toe of his foot was bad, painful and with pus.
“It is here that they said I must go to a rehabilitation centre. They asked me whether I was ok with that and I said I don't have a problem,” says Sindani.
So, he finally went and was admitted at Chiromo Group of Hospitals for two weeks for treatment.
“I later went to Royal Victory Hospital (RVH) Rehab in Buruburu, Nairobi for a 90 day for alcohol recovery program,” he says.
Sindani says he used to think he can control alcohol but he learned when he was at the rehab that he was an alcoholic and no one could control his drinking and it made his life unmanageable.
“So the only solution for an alcoholic is abstinence. Nothing like moderation. Just three days at the rehab, I had already made up my mind not drink alcohol again,” says Sindani.
He adds: “Because I wondered how my own money was almost killing me. At the rehab we had doctors, lawyers, policemen and even accomplished businessmen. That's how bad alcohol is. It can mess around with anybody, and I think that's why they take you there, so that you meet and talk to others and suffer like you so that you share experiences.”
One of the aspects of rehab that he says he knows is that if one doesn't want to heal, even if they take him to rehab, he will not be healed.
“You have to accept that you want healing. Because I have met people there who will tell you, this might be the time. So even when you are telling them I'm committed; I will not drink again, you have to decide in your mind, it must be intentional. Change your mindset. That is lesson number one,” says Sindani.
Number two is avoid places, people and things(PPT), that can make one go back to drinking.
“You avoid those ones. So what are these things? There are some things you just look at like alcohol and whatever, because it's a mental thing. It revives you,” says Sindani.
He adds: “For places, you know, there are some places when you go there, you put yourself in a situation. Like when you see a bar. And you see also there are people who, even when I stopped, it took time for people to stop disturbing me. Basically, they want to give you one or two for the road. I deliberately did it because I asked myself what it is that I am losing or gaining by avoiding them.”
Sindani, who is now 48 years old says he married at 41 and now he is a father of two boys aged six years and four years.
He says alcohol would sometimes make him dream strangely like he was dead and people were burying him.
“And it looks very real, then you wake up very scared and realise it was just a dream, it again takes your life. You even dream of someone chasing you in the dark. It's really mental,” he says.
Sindani says being a drinking officer caused him a lot of debts because he could drink up to Sh40,000 on credit but pay later.
“Because we used to get an Authority to Incur Expense(AIE), money which is meant for expenses which also included entertainment or tea for visitors,” he says.
Today, he uses Facebook to share his past stories he shares on a Facebook account called Daniel Sindani, which he says has had an immense impact with many, including addicts coming to his inbox for advice.
He is now also being invited to events and local radio stations to speak about alcoholism.
“I DON'T HATE ALCOHOL. I HATE WHAT ALCOHOLISM DID TO ME.
Let me make this very clear: I don't speak about alcohol because I hate people who drink. I speak because I know what alcohol did to me.
For me, alcohol became synonymous with alcoholism. What started as drinking eventually became a nightmare I couldn't easily escape.
There were times my blood pressure shot up. My heart would race so violently that I felt like it was trying to jump out of my chest. My palms and the soles of my feet would burn so badly that I had to look for a cold floor just to get some relief. Then came the anxiety.
Terrible, suffocating anxiety. Life became miserable. I could smile in public while fighting battles nobody knew about. So when I talk about alcoholism, I am not sitting on a moral pedestal judging anyone. I am speaking from experience,” says Sindani in part of one of his latest posts.
