'I saw my friends die but I could not beat the urge'

"Life has been a whirlwind. While sometime I try to comprehend some things, they seem too complex for me. I try avoiding soul searching as I end up with more questions than answers. I was born in 1976 in Mombasa. My journey down this path started with a puff of cigarette.

When I got used to cigarettes I moved to bhang. It got to a point bhang never got me as high as I wanted. I tried out a cocktail of several drugs and finally settled for heroin when I was in Form Two. Friends introduced me to drugs. I was a drug addict for 11 years."

Beach boys

On one weekend, I was in our home area of Mwandoni in Kisauni. I went for a stroll in the beach and met up with my friends. Out of curiosity I got my first taste of heroin. The supplies were from beach boys who were peddling the drugs to tourists.

Those days police officers were not familiar with heroin, which was believed to be a preserve of tourists.

DRUG FREE: Khalid Shee Abdalla during the interview. He was introduced to drugs by his neighbourhood friends.

I found the kick from heroin to be exquisite and after trying it out for some time I got hooked. You only need to use it three times to get addicted.

I sat for my KCSE in 1995 while on expulsion from school because of drug related issues.

By 2000, I was a chronic addict. I did anything to get a shot of the drug. I turned to stealing, as I could not do without the heroin. I have been arrested and put in all the police stations in Mombasa.

For the first seven years of my addiction, my parents did not know I was addicted to drugs.

At one time, I went gaga due to the effects of drugs but instead my parents took me to traditional healers in Tanzania. From there, I could sneak out and go buy heroin.

My parents always defended me when accused of abusing drugs until the started questioning my sporadic absence from home. It is then that I decided to reveal my habit to my family. Needless to say they were dumbfounded. My habit worsened and at one time I was kicked out of our home.

I always tried to withdraw from the drugs but the harder I tried the more my friends pulled me back.

I was lucky because I did not take drugs through injection and sharing of syringes. I specialised in cocktails and heroin taking instead.

I watched my friends die from drug overdose or HIV/Aids related complication after sharing needles. I abused drugs with my three cousins. One died of heroin overdose after he injected himself in a toilet. The second succumbed to TB complications as he used to inject himself and the third one is still an active drug user. He lost his job at the Mombasa Municipal Council due to drug addiction.

Many young people would come to our group to be introduced to drugs because we believed drugs enhance sexual performance.

Robbery charge

I introduced my friend to heroin and he was later killed by a mob when he was found stealing to raise money to buy the commodity. His parents blamed me for the incident. I regret it every day of my life.

As addicts, my peers and I could also resort to cheap labour to raise money for drugs but we got our money mostly through stealing.

I once faced a robbery with violence charge but it was later terminated after the complainant died.

While in remand custody in 2003, founder of the Reachout Centre Trust, the late Murad

Saad, came to the cells to counsel remandees.

This was my turning point. I immediately joined Murad’s drug addicts rehabilitation centre where I stayed for six months. It was not easy as the urge to sniff heroin was at time insatiable.

When Murad established Tuonane Project to reach out to addicts, I joined him in 2005 to help other addicts reform. I became a field officer. I helped many youth withdraw from drugs. Seventeen of them have fully reformed.

Soon after settling to my job, God blessed me with a wonderful wife. I married Ms Warda Awadh, who was a volunteer counsellor with the Reachout Rehabilitation Centre. We have two boys Bashir aged four years and Murad aged two. Her brother was an injection drug addict.

My wife has been my counsellor. I have managed to stay out of addiction since my incarceration eight years ago.

Peer pressure

We have come a long way with Warda. In 2009, we bought our house in Kisauni, which we have rented out for additional income.

Withdrawing from drugs is a process and not an event. I had to move out of Mwandoni to change the neighbourhood that influenced my life.

This way I avoided the peer pressure that some times made me do things I never fathomed.

This aids recovery from the effects of drugs.’