The National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) has rolled out a program targeting religious leaders to be involved in the fight against drug abuse.
Nacada held a forum in Mombasa where about 40 Imams and Sheikhs drawn from the six sub-counties in Mombasa underwent a sensitization forum on the adverse effects of abusing drugs.
The forum attended by Nacada board director Farida Rashid was held at the Star of the Sea Social Hall.
“We have been going to schools and communities sensitizing them about the negative effects of drugs. But we then saw the need to engage the clerics because they wield a lot of influence in the society,” said Rashid.
Rashid said that the program was aiming at reducing the numbers of children engaging in drug abuse.
She said that a number of youth in the region have sunk to abusing drugs leading to many dropping out of school and joining juvenile gangs.
To curb the situation, Rashid urged parents to step up in their parenting role saying that many had abandoned the role thus creating an opportunity for the children to explore and be exploited.
She said that the emergence of Miraa (Khat) and Mogoka has had an adverse effect in the community because the two are easily accessible and eaten openly.
“We as Nacada have been working tirelessly towards sensitizing the community on the negative effects of mogoka especially on children. You will find parents seated at home chewing like goats as children watch, they see it is okay that is why many join”
She urged parents to be role models to their children and create time to spend with them so that they can be able to pen up on what they go through.
“As a parent you need to know the whereabouts of your children, what they do and who they associate with. Many don’t even follow up on how children perform and behave in school,” she said.
George Karisa, Nacada coast regional manager said that as an authority they decided to engage the imams because the fight against drugs in the region requires a multi-agency approach.
He said that the forum was about informing the clerics about the strategies Nacada is employing and also employing the recommendations they will give to strengthen the fight against the vice.
“Children now days begin to abuse as early as class four, we want to work with these leaders so that they can spread the message in mosques and madrasas and even in religious functions they preside over and attend. If we have enough sensitization, the numbers will go down,” said karisa.
According to Karisa, Mombasa alone has over 8,000 people injecting heroin adding that those abusing mogoka is very worrying.
He said that so many of those being admitted at the government owned Sh1.2 billion Miritini Treatment and Rehabilitation Center were brought in for abusing miraa and mogokaa.
“Many are not aware that they affect the brain and it is wrong for parents to send their children to buy them mogoka and miraa. However, this is not the time to apportion blames but work together to solve the issue,” he said.
The organizing secretary for the Council of Imams and Preachers (CIPK) Mombasa county Sheikh Mahmoud Abdillahi called on the government to be more vigilant in the fight against drug abuse.
He asked the government to regulate the sale of mogoka and miraa as he also called on parents to take up their responsibilities in their families.
Representing the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims in Mombasa sheikh Alfan said that the forum was timely and well thought.
Sheikh Alfan reiterated that they have been at the forefront of fighting the vice over the years insisting that religion does not condone anything that affects the community.
“We want to urge our security agencies to be more responsible, it is however unfortunate that some officers are in cohort with some of these peddlers and barons as they pick bribes from them,” he said.