KENYAN MP Reuben Ndolo, early this year during a rally he had called to address his Makadara constituents over threatened eviction by Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) for those residing under electricity wayleaves, asked the state corporation where his people would go if the threat was carried out.

Exhorting the people to stay put, he made a statement which has since become a major pun when he adviced them to rubber-necklace the KPLC employees the moment they were sighted.

"Ukiwaona was, ukiwaona wao...(if you see them)," he exhorted the now charged crowd who eargerly awaited to hear from their MP what they should do; "uwawekee taili (rubber necklace them."

This statement was widely covered in the print and electronic media, drawing a sharp reaction from the energy minister at the time, Ochillo Ayacko.

Ndolo quickly withdrew his remark claiming, as Kenyan policticians are wont to do that he was misquoted.

This way, they have a lot in common with alcoholics and other drug addicts. One minute an alcoholic is creating all kinds of mayhem in public without a seeming care in the world, and in the morning when you confront the now sober fellow, he is genuinely puzzled as he claims you are kidding.

"Be serious," he will laugh in your face. "Of course, you are not serious. I would never do a thing like that!"

But here is where all semblance with the politician ends, for the alcoholic cannot genuinely remember how he was behaving as the brain was not recording anything. Thus, as soon as he slept and woke up, there would be large gaps in the memory, ranging in size from a few minutes to several days.

So you find the hapless fellow asking who dropped him home, yet he drove in, parked at the usual place, locked the car as usual and left the key on the usual coffee table in the sitting room.

At another time he might start searching frantically for money he hid when he came in last night, or indeed, might never bother looking for it, depending on how wide the gap in memory is.

Then, too there are the days, weeks or months when the alcoholic goes about his business normally reverting to the jolly hard-working person everyone knows, leading people to believe that the previous behaviour had just been a bad patch or unintentional.

Well this Jeckyl and Hyde behaviour can simply be put down to the fact that when the alcoholic is not drinking (and all alcoholics can go at leats one day without drinking) he is in control of his senses.

But the moment he takes any alcohol there is no gaurantee of what will happen next. Indeed, alcoholism simply means loss of control over one's drinking.

Confused family members and friends will therefore grasp at all sorts of reasons, including madness or witcraft, for this behaviour, while in reality they couldn't be further from the truth. This person is an alcoholic and needs treatment. It is that simple.

This year's theme of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (IDDAIT), celebrated on June 26, has as its theme Drugs: Treatment Works, and as UN secretary-general Koffi Annan noted in his message, "One of the most damaging misconceptions about drug abuse is that it is a permanent problem,"

Annan concluded his message by saying that "when treatment works, it benefits us all", and the benefits are enormous, for where there is one alcoholic or other drug addict, there is chaos.

Alcohol and other drug addictions walk hand in hand with HIV/AIDS, for where you find one the other is always sure to be lurking nearby, and yet Kenyan politicians, led by President Mwai Kibaki, have refused to declare drug abuse a national disaster.

The ministry of health has turned a blind eye to its mandate of establishing rehabilitation centres countrywide.

Therefore, Kenyans should help themselves as the government slumbers on, for right now we are the ones in immediate need and who bear the brunt of living with an alcoholic or other drug addict.

I have a cry which I want all Kenyans to help me shout across the length and breath of the land every time they see an alcoholic or other drug addict. "Ukiwaona wao..ukiwaona wao...uwapelekee (if you see them take them for) treatment".

David Ogot is a recovering alcoholic. he may be reached at goinghomedotcom@yahoo.com www.goinghomekenya.org

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