- NACADA has revealed alarming statistics showing that one in eleven Kenyan youths aged 15–24 has been using drugs or substances of abuse.
- Parents, teachers and schools have been urged to take proactive roles in guiding learners, with emphasis on mentorship, counselling and responsible behaviour.
- Communities, churches and government agencies have joined the call, stressing that collective vigilance has been essential in confronting drug and substance abuse during school holidays.
The August holiday should be a season of renewal, family bonding, and personal growth. Instead, for many families, it has quietly become a period when young people are exposed to one of society’s most destructive yet increasingly overlooked threats—drug and substance abuse.
For some time now, national conversations have centred on internet addiction, gambling, cybercrime, and social media influence. While these are legitimate concerns, another menace has continued to spread almost unnoticed. Drug and substance abuse has not disappeared from our schools; it has simply become less talked about. Silence should never be mistaken for progress.
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Alarming Statistics on Youth Substance Use
Recent findings by the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) paint a worrying picture. The 2022 National Survey found that one in every eleven Kenyans aged 15–24 years is currently using at least one drug or substance of abuse, while one in every twenty young people in this age group is currently consuming alcohol. The report further revealed that one in every forty-five youths aged 15–24 years is already addicted to alcohol, demonstrating that experimentation quickly develops into dependency for many adolescents.
The World Health Organization warns that harmful alcohol consumption contributes to disease, injuries, violence, road traffic crashes, mental illness, and premature deaths worldwide. Young people who begin drinking early are significantly more likely to develop lifelong alcohol dependence and engage in risky behaviours. These findings remind us that alcohol is not merely a personal choice; it is a public health challenge with profound educational, social, and economic consequences.
The evidence is increasingly visible in our own communities. From time to time, Kenyans witness learners consuming alcohol while still wearing school uniforms as they travel home. Such scenes should disturb every parent, teacher, religious leader, and policymaker. They reveal not simply indiscipline but deeper cracks within the institutions entrusted with raising children.
American psychologist Albert Bandura, through his Social Learning Theory, observed that children learn by watching others. Parents therefore remain the first teachers long before formal education begins. Children imitate behaviour before they obey instructions.
Parents and Schools Must Lead Prevention
This reality calls parents to honest self-reflection. If you choose to consume alcohol, do so responsibly. Never make your home the first drinking environment your child experiences. Never drink to the point of losing dignity before your children. Authority is earned through example, not commands.
The holiday should compel every parent to ask difficult but necessary questions:
Which friends are my children spending time with?
Which parties are they attending?
Who supervises them when they leave home?
Which places are they visiting without my knowledge?
What online content are they consuming?
Above all, what habits am I demonstrating in front of them?
Children not only inherit our advice; they often inherit our lifestyles.
The digital revolution has complicated this challenge. Social media frequently glamorises excessive drinking, drug use, reckless partying, and celebrity lifestyles. Viral videos often portray alcohol as fashionable and harmless, encouraging adolescents to seek validation through imitation. Consequently, internet regulation, stronger parental controls, digital literacy, and responsible content creation deserve urgent national attention. Freedom of expression must never become freedom to endanger children.
Schools equally have an indispensable responsibility. Guidance and counselling departments should move beyond reacting after learners are caught. Preventive education should begin early through life-skills lessons, mentorship programmes, peer counselling, career guidance, and continuous engagement with parents. Recovering addicts, health professionals, NACADA officers, and psychologists should regularly interact with learners to demonstrate the devastating consequences of addiction.
Educational philosopher John Dewey wisely observed, “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” Schools therefore have a duty to cultivate values, sound judgement, resilience, and responsible decision-making alongside academic excellence.
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Communities and Government Share the Burden
The church cannot remain silent either. Places of worship should become sanctuaries of hope where young people find acceptance, mentorship, counselling, and moral guidance rather than judgement. Faith communities should organise holiday mentorship programmes, youth conferences, talent development initiatives, and family counselling sessions that keep adolescents constructively engaged.
Likewise, society must recover the African philosophy that every child belongs to the community. Neighbours, extended families, local administrators, youth groups, and community leaders should work together in protecting children from environments that encourage drug abuse. The African proverb remains timeless: “It takes a village to raise a child.”
Government agencies must also strengthen enforcement of existing legislation, including the Alcoholic Drinks Control Act, 2010 (Mututho Law) and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act. These laws prohibit the sale of alcohol to persons below eighteen years and provide legal mechanisms for controlling narcotic drugs. Effective implementation, however, requires sustained public cooperation rather than government action alone.
Drug and substance abuse destroys far more than health. It weakens moral values, erodes discipline, fuels school unrest, contributes to gender-based violence, increases crime, destroys academic potential, fractures families, and places immense pressure on the healthcare system. It robs the nation of productive citizens long before they realise their potential.
As we embrace the school holidays, the responsibility rests upon every stakeholder. Parents must supervise. Teachers must mentor. Churches must nurture. NACADA must intensify awareness campaigns. Communities must remain vigilant. Government must enforce the law. Above all, young people must choose purpose over peer pressure.
If families fail to guide their children during the holidays, schools will inherit the consequences when the next term begins. Discipline problems in many institutions often begin long before learners report back to school.
The ball is firmly in our hands. Let this holiday not be remembered as the season when we looked away while our children slipped into addiction. Let it instead become the moment when families, schools, churches, communities, and government united to reclaim a generation whose greatest ambition is not intoxication, but integrity, character, and hope.
By Astiba Kebong’o
Astiba_Kebongo. jackiekebongo@gmail.com
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