The County Government of Nairobi led by Governor Johnson Sakaja is set to open the Sinai Memorial Health Facility, Nairobi, on Wednesday, April 5, 2023.
According to City Hall, the facility will be the first rehabilitation centre targeted specifically for alcohol abusers and will address challenges that stem from the addiction.
“Through this project, we will be looking at ensuring that we effectively re-integrate recovered addicts back into the society and give after care to ensure they do not relapse and are able to continue working and contributing to Nairobi’s economy.
“The Multi-Sectoral teams’ approach is, therefore, to ensure that we have all the sectors involved in the recovery process,” stated Zipporah Mwangi, the Chief Officer of Business and Hustler Opportunities in Sakaja’s administration.
The rehabilitation centre will incorporate evidence-based medical services to treat the patients on an outpatient basis.
Sakaja's administration also aims to also provide social support and reintegrate recovered addicts into society.
This will bolster the work done by Nairobi’s methadone clinic which helps opioid abusers.
Based in Ngara in Nairobi, the facility offers methadone as a medication-assisted treatment (MAT) to help heroine abusers beat addiction.
Data by the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) showed that alcohol is the most abused drug in Kenya.
According to NACADA’s report that was published on February 10, 2023, titled ‘Status of Drugs and Substance of Abuse in Kenya’, alcohol abuse had increased among the youth.
The report found that at least 3.2 million Kenyans had challenges with alcohol abuse.
“The situation has been made worse due to the growing problem of drug abuse in our schools. The most abused drug in Kenya is alcohol followed by tobacco, khat, cannabis, prescription drugs, heroin, and cocaine,” NACADA stated.
