NACADA raises alarm over illegal rehabilitation centers

The National Authority for Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) has expressed its concern over the mushrooming of illegal rehabilitation centers across the country.

Through its board, the authority noted that over 60 percent of the centers which were mainly targeting alcohol addicts were keen to make quick buck.

This came in the wake of information that the number of drug and liquor addicts in the country had shot up from 2.6 million to 3 million in a span of three years.

This emerged during a two day retreat for members of the NACADA board held at Sawela Lodge in Naivasha.

Addressing the press during the retreat, the authority chairman John Mututho said that they had started the process of closing down the illegal rehabilitation centers.

Mututho said that there were over 80 private rehabilitation centers, four owned by the government and eleven others under construction.

“Majority of these centers are questionable and it comes at a time when the number of addicts in the country has hit 3 million with Central Kenya leading in liquor addicts,” he said.

The former Naivasha MP added that 50 percent of students in colleges and universities were exposed to substance abuse.

During the meeting, the board met the two sacked chiefs who went under rehabilitation and recommended that they be reinstated.

“The two chiefs have fully recovered and we shall be advocating for support of more government rehabilitation centers to deal with the high number of convicts,” he said.

A board member, Reverend Wilfred Kogo, expressed his concern over the high number of addicts in the country noting that this could affect production and man power.

The cleric questioned the authenticity of some of the rehabilitation centers noting that many of them were out to make money at the expense of the addicts.

“We are calling on a study to determine the extent of addiction in the country as the vice has now spread to learning institutions,” he said.

Report by Karanja Kimani