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"content": "caused? But even as we talk, never mind that there is the Mututho Law, if you go to any place, you will still find people lying in gutters, and they do not know where they are because they are dead drunk. That is not a normal thing because that cannot be alcohol, neither is it a drug. It is pure poison in a bottle that has been passed by the Kenya Bureau of Standards. I think that this now becomes a very big challenge to the county governments, because they are closer to the people. This was one of the major purposes of devolution; to bring the Government and institutions much closer to the people, so that they are able to complain and bring out these issues much closer home, because they are real. Mr. Speaker, Sir, there is also the issue of licensing. We know that all the counties have the budgets and monies that they got as allocation from the national Government. These budgets are in deficit. How are they going to bridge these deficits? One of the ways to bridge these deficits is by licensing. I hope that among the licences that the county governments are going to give, they are not going to put emphasis on collecting licence fees from people who sell alcohol. I hope that they will be very careful because there is always the temptation that the bars in all those towns are a source of income. They should not be looked at as sources of income, because if they do so, then the county governments in the zeal to collect revenues from licences will overlook the more important issue of trying to see to it that these pubs are not licensed. We must adhere to the law. The Mututho Law, in my view, with all its failings, should be reviewed, so that the best practices out of it come out, and we are able to help our counties grow. Mr. Speaker, Sir, there is the issue of rehabilitation. If anybody cared to look at the Sunday Standard of last Sunday, there was a story of a young lady who has gone to hell and back, out of alcohol and drug abuse. That lady has written a book in which she talks about rehabilitation and the need for us to look at this issue seriously. Since she has come out openly to talk about it, we need to talk about this issue of alcohol and drug abuse openly and take rehabilitation seriously. I talk about that lady because I know her. She is from my county and I am very proud that she has been able to come out, talk about it and even author a book about it because I am sure that she is going to help a lot of people. Mr. Speaker, Sir, institutes like Asumbi Institute for Rehabilitation and all those that are there, should be emulated and multiplied. They should be in as many counties as possible. There should also be inter-county exchanges, so that our young men and women can agree to go to these rehabilitation centres. Unfortunately, there are virtually none in the counties. I want to encourage the county governments, in their budgets, to ensure that because of this national disaster, they have sufficient number of rehabilitation centres as is necessary, so that our young men and women can, at least, go for rehabilitation. If you look at the case of Njeri, the young lady who wrote her own story, she is gone through it and is now rehabilitated, and is helping other people to get rehabilitated. So, it is possible and can work. But it will only work if all of us take it in and we take this Motion seriously and have the Government of the Republic of Kenya declare drugs and alcohol abuse a national disaster. Mr. Speaker, Sir, on my part, I would have said: Alcohol, drugs and other substance abuse. This is because we know that there are other substances that are coming up that are not designated as drugs, yet they continue to destroy our children. Shisha is The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}