Rehabilitation centres overwhelmed by drug addicts

Rehabilitation centres in Meru County are overwhelmed by the number of drug and alcoholic drink addicts, stakeholders have warned.

Meru County Alcoholic Drinks Control Board CEO Mbaabu Muguna said the five private rehabilitation facilities are full.

Dr Muguna said the county was facing a burden of alcohol and drug addicts and Governor Kawira Mwangaza was spearheading construction of a rehabilitation facility in Buuri sub-County.

“We have started a rehabilitation centre with a 100-bed capacity. It is 90 per cent complete, at Kiirua,” he said yesterday.  Muguna said there are five private rehabilitation facilities in the county, which shows the extent of the problem. “They are costly and are full. This is what informed us to start this new one and soon it will be operational. The facilities charge between Sh150,000 to Sh200,000 per full course (of treatment). Ours will be affordable and will have accreditation to government insurance fund,” said Dr Muguna.

Mwangaza said the Meru County Rehabilitation and Treatment Centre, the only such public facility in Upper Eastern, would help address the menace.

Muguna said part of the board’s efforts was imposing a ban on alcohol-selling joints in residential estates. He fired a warning to dealers who might try to flout the law on location of their alcohol businesses or sell it to school children.

“The law clearly states that alcohol should not be sold 300 metres near any basic education institution. Bar owners should have signs and writings to ensure alcohol is not sold to children. Even if the bar is located a kilometre away and we discover it is selling alcohol to children, we always arrest and charge the culprits immediately,” he added.

He said the board had, in addition to closing down the ones near schools, ordered others near residential plots to vacate. “We have also declined to license them. Some are selling alcohol to children,” he said.