Beyond crackdowns: What Ruto missed on ending alcoholism for Kenyan men
Kenya is launching a forensic fight against alcoholism. But for millions of men, the battle is internal, rooted in pain no crackdown can reach.
What you need to know:
- Kenya is launching a forensic fight against alcoholism. But for many men, the battle is internal, rooted in pain no crackdown can reach.
Mungai (identified by his surname) was on his second beer at his Kiambu home last Wednesday night when President William Ruto began speaking about what he called ‘a silent but deadly crisis’: alcohol and drug abuse.
“I paused and turned up the volume to hear what he had to say,” he said.
President Ruto delivered his New Year’s address on December 31, 2025, from State Lodge, Eldoret.
“I thought he would announce higher taxes on alcohol to make it more expensive as a deterrent,” Mungai added.
Instead, the President spoke of his concern over the disproportionate impact of alcohol addiction on men, warning that Kenya risks losing development and growth as millions - mostly men - remain trapped in addiction.
According to the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Nacada) 2022 report on the status of drugs and substance use in Kenya, 53.7 per cent of Kenyans perceive illicit brews to be widespread in their communities.
Western Kenya recorded the highest perception at 85.8 per cent, followed by Nyanza at 81.9 per cent and Rift Valley at 55.6 per cent.
The report further found that one in every five men aged 15–65 years (about 2.5 million men) and one in every 20 women (about 687,000) were current alcohol users. Regionally, Western Kenya had the highest prevalence of alcohol use at 23.8 per cent, followed by the Coast at 13.9 per cent and Central Kenya at 12.8 per cent.
In response, President Ruto committed to establishing a strengthened Anti-Narcotics Unit within the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, with operational capacity comparable to the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit. The unit will be fully resourced with modern surveillance, intelligence, forensic and financial investigation capabilities.
It will operate as a permanent, multi-agency formation working with Nacada, the National Intelligence Service, border management agencies, county governments and international partners to combat alcohol and drug abuse.
But as soon as the President concluded this part of his address, Mungai switched to Netflix - angry and disappointed.
“I expected him to talk about the pressures men face in their homes that push us to alcohol,” he said.
“I used to drink one or two beers on Fridays after work just to unwind. But after I got married, my wife and her in-laws really frustrated me. Eventually, they took her away and my daughter. That is torture.”
Now, he says, drinking two or three beers daily is his way of coping.
“No matter how much my uncle, who is my confidant, tries to counsel me, I can’t stop. Alcohol gives me some sense of sanity,” he said.
For Mungai, ending alcoholism in Kenya requires looking beyond poverty, unemployment, peer pressure, work stress, easy availability of alcohol, and crackdowns.
“I used to head a department, but I asked to be removed from the position because the weight of my personal struggles, which I was trying to drown in alcohol, became too much,” he said.
“You can arrest people for alcohol and drug abuse, but will you have eliminated what pushes them into it? There are families so broken that alcohol is the only refuge fathers and boys have. How will the President address that?”
In his address, President Ruto acknowledged the role of families and parents in preventing addiction.
“No law can replace parental guidance, community values or early intervention in the lives of our children,” he said.
“We must choose to be present in the lives of our children: to guide them, protect them and intervene early before addiction takes hold. If we fail to act, we fail our children; if we rise to this duty, we secure not only their future, but the moral strength and destiny of our nation,” he emphasised.
Kenneth Mwangi, who struggled with alcoholism for a decade, agreed that childhood experiences shape later health outcomes.
His addiction, he said, stemmed from adverse childhood experiences - traumatic events occurring between birth and age 17 - particularly a deep resentment towards his father.
It was only after a period of self-reflection, forgiveness and reconciliation that he lost interest in drinking.
“The more adverse childhood experiences a person has, the higher the likelihood of addiction, mental health challenges and even physical conditions like high blood pressure later in life,” he said.
“Alcohol works like Panadol. You have a headache, you take Panadol, but what you don’t realise is that you have a tumour. You can’t treat a tumour with a painkiller,” he pointed out.
In the same way, he said, alcohol temporarily numbs pain without addressing its root causes.
Mwangi argued that responses to substance abuse must also recognise other hidden addictions, such as pornography, which often coexist with alcohol dependency.
He called for preventive programmes in schools to help young people process trauma early, as well as safe spaces for men already struggling with addiction.
“The more you talk about it, it feels like you’re slowly moving a mountain and healing begins,” he said.
“But when it remains a secret because of stigma, it eats you up. And that is the real crisis.”
