The government has once again raised a red flag on alcohol addiction and drug use dependence, with Nairobi topping the list of regions in the country where the vice is prevalent.

Among young people aged 15 to 24 years, one in eleven—approximately 632,000 individuals—is currently using at least one drug or substance. In the 25 to 35 age group, over 1.5 million individuals are reported to be affected.

In the latest report released by the Ministry of Health, alcohol is ranked top as the commonly abused substance, followed by khat (miraa), tobacco, cannabis and prescription drugs as data shows that Kenyans have turned to the pharmacies in the absence of the first four.

Public Health and Professional Standards Principal Secretary, Mary Muthoni, identified peer pressure, unemployment, limited access to education and counselling services, and the widespread availability of illicit substances in informal markets as some of the combinations of factors fuelling the rising trend.

“The mental health consequences of drug and substance abuse are deeply troubling,” she said in a statement released to the newsrooms yesterday, pointing out that adolescents and young adults are particularly at risk, with those aged between 15 and 35 years accounting for over half of drug users in the country.

Early initiation into drug use is strongly associated with the onset of lifelong mental health disorders, family disruption, school dropout, and in some cases, suicide.

In the latest data, 5 per cent of adolescents and young people aged 15-24 are addicted to alcohol with a similar percentage depending on cannabis and slightly lower at 3 and 4 per cent, smoke and chew khat ,respectively.

At the national level, 11 per cent of those aged 15 and 65 years, about 3,199,119, consume alcohol on a daily basis while 8.5 per cent of them, an estimated 2,305,929, smoke tobacco. In the category of alcohol, nationally, Western, Coast and Central have more alcoholics, while tobacco smoking is prevalent in Central, Coast and eastern regions.

Khat chewing is prevalent among 15-24 years old with 2.6 per cent identified in the 2022 data, which points out that 5 per cent of this age group is addicted to cannabis.

In this category, Eastern, Northeastern and Nairobi, a population of 964,737 about 3.6 per cent and 1.9 per cent, an estimated 518,807 of the residents of Nairobi, Nyanza and Coast, addicted to cannabis.