Leaders should do more than cry for youth addicted to alcohol

In his celebrated novel, Cry the Beloved Country, Alan Paton, conveys the anguish of the South African parents who had to endure the effects of a disintegrating South Africa on their children.

When the story ends with the execution of young Absalom, one can feel the agony of his family as they witness the waste that apartheid South Africa produced, especially on the youth. This tragedy comes to mind every time I visit the county of my birth. The character of the disintegration may not be as acute as that of apartheid, but it is no less tragic.

This latter day tragedy has to do with the retreat of the youth to alcohol particularly in central Kenya. It is now the stuff of bar jokes that baby cries are as alien as the Internet in that part of the world. The census report corroborated this by disclosing that birth rates in central Kenya were below the national average.

The impact of alcoholism in central Kenya is most noticeable in the lack of labour especially the semi-skilled variety. Much of this labour force is increasingly being imported from western Kenya, causing my friend Dr Mukhisa Kituyi to quip that central Kenya will soon produce a club in the national football league.

It is easy to dismiss this situation as a regional problem and therefore not worthy of national attention. In truth the situation is not unique to Central though it may be more pronounced there. In a recent visit to Machakos County, I was shocked to encounter similar sights; young men sprawled on the sidewalks in the middle of the day, snoring away. I suspect that this malaise will soon reach epidemic proportions unless tackled with the immediacy it demands.

What then must we do? I was delighted to hear Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta flag this issue as a national crisis and have noted with appreciation the investments that the Treasury is making on youth related programmes.

The situation is, however, so dire that it requires a more intense multi-pronged, Marshall Plan approach. It will need to address issues relating to alcohol consumption as the John Mututho Act seeks to do, whilst recognising that this is just a symptom. Solutions to the malaise must attack its fundamental causes.

These include, inter alia, the hopelessness that the collapse of the economy has had on the youth. It has to do with the collapse of the public education system, which shuts out poor youth from accessing quality education and denies them an entry ticket to the formal economy.

 It is compounded by the absence of male parenting and lack of role models after most fathers have migrated to the cities in search of work. These problems require strategic solutions.

Unlike Paton, we must do more than cry for our beloved country, we must act with urgency to rescue our youth so that we can all participate in creating a new Kenya. If we fail, our dream of a new reenergized country will remain just that, a dream.　

The writer is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya