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{
    "id": 1340703,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1340703/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 259,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kanduyi, FORD-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Makali",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "that one in every three Kenyans aged between 13 years to 65 years, translating to a population of 8 million people, had minimal depressive disorders. Drugs and substance abuse have wrecked families. Children have been left destitute owing to consumption of drugs specifically alcohol, cocaine, cannabis sativa and heroin. Unless and until this problem is addressed, we are staring at a very bleak future. Jobs have been lost because of excessive consumption of drugs. In the survey that was carried out by two commissions on causes of unrest in schools, drug and alcohol consumption were singled out as some of the causes. In the recent report by NACADA, one of its purposes was to ensure that rehabilitation centres are created so that people with substance disorders are not treated like criminals, but victims of a mental health disease which needs to be attended to. If you look at the statistics of rehabilitation centres in this country, you will find that only five of them are run by the Government of Kenya. It is said that 90 per cent of the rehabilitation centres are run by faith-based organisations and other private entities. It is the role of Government, through NACADA, to ensure that our population is not imbibed in drugs. This problem is getting worse owing to digitisation. NACADA was given the role of disseminating information and carrying out sensitisation and advocacy. Right now, we are finding the youth and underage children buying drugs through online platforms. We have not been able to control online platforms. The county governments were given a role of setting up mechanisms to control licensing. I wish to state that most of them have failed because their main obsession is licensing outlets where drugs are sold because their main concern is revenue collection. In most urban centres you will find wines and spirits shops littered everywhere and alcohol is sold across the counter to very young people. We need to move from hammer-and-tongs approach where the national Government at the county level is only concerned about arresting these people, taking them to court and treating them as victims or criminals. We need to begin taking this as a mental issue and look at it as a mental disease which needs to be taken care of. How do we treat this as a mental disease? If you move in the streets, say, in Bungoma, you will find young boys sniffing glue. These boys create street families and with time, they mutate and become criminals. We are not focusing on treating these people. The only way we can treat these people is by establishing rehabilitation centres. We can ring- fence all the funds that are collected from licensing of the outlets that sell alcohol and drugs and direct them towards running of rehabilitation centres. In all our constituencies, there are families that are wrecked by people consuming alcohol and doing drugs like cannabis sativa . We arrest these people and take them to court, but they are soon released to the society. They go back to the same old habits. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I move that this House urges the Government of the Republic of Kenya to ensure that we put up rehabilitation centres in each and every part of the country. These people who are addicted to drugs and other substances can be treated as patients. Sufficient funds can be put there so that they are actually treated. We need to treat it as an ailment and not a criminal offence. You arrest people, take them to court, they are fined, and then they return back to their normal circumstances. Equally, we created an organisation known as the NACADA. It is supposed to do sensitisation and run rehabilitation centres. It is not adequately funded to run its programmes, specifically in civic education outreach programmes. I visited their offices and they only run one rehabilitation centre in Miritini in Mombasa. They have challenges. Which challenges do they have? They have challenges of funding, lack of staff and the need to keep patients there. So, we need to facilitate this organisation so that it can perform its statutory mandate as stipulated in the enabling statute. We need to treat these people who are suffering from substance abuse. Some of them have lost jobs. Others have families, which have been left destitute. Others have even died. We The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}