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Belated congratulations to the new Vice President Moody Awori who is well regarded by Kenyans
and known to be a 'sober' person or in other words level-headed, lucid, calm, rational,
practical and realistic.
Nowadays I too regard myself as a sober person a far cry from my drinking days when more
suitable adjectives to describe me would have been drunk, blotto, plastered, sloshed, smashed,
intoxicated or tight.
Two types of sober needed by two different types of people for different reasons. I need my
soberness to stay alive. 'Uncle Moody' as the new VP is affectionately referred to by most
Kenyans needs to use his brand of soberness to keep other Kenyan alcoholics alive.
Right now I am not in denial. I have accepted the fact that I am an alcoholic. I suffer from
a disease called alcoholism. However I am lucky for though alcoholism is a chronic, progressive
disease, it is treatable.
The treatment does not involve any treatment expensive or otherwise. It simply involves
abstinence. My problem does not stem from beer number five, or ten or twenty but from the first
beer. As long as I do not take the first sip or the first beer I am safe.
But the nature of the disease is such that even had I been sober for 20 years now, were I to
take a beer, the effect would be the same as had I had my last drink yesterday. This is the
progressive nature of the disease. Even when one is abstinent it still progresses.
Hence you find someone in recovery staying off alcohol for several years but when they resume
even in the first few days you hear family members or colleagues saying 'he only started
drinking two days ago but he is worse than he was when he was drinking!'
Actually he or she is not worse, but exactly where they would have been had they not stopped.
And so I come to the to the most important thing I have learnt in recovery and that is for an
alcoholic to continue drinking, there are only three possible outcomes and these are based on
the outcomes of millions of cases of alcoholics who did not or could not stop. Jail, a mental
institution or death.
I did not know this before, so I kept on trying to find the right formula so that I could
drink 'normally' like everyone else. At the same time the stigma and prejudice surrounding this
disease prevented anybody from saying the word 'alcoholic'. But that is all behind me now. I am
lucky.
But what about the other Kenyans? This is where Uncle Moody needs to apply his type of
soberness starting with being realistic. The disease of alcoholism exists and the Home Affairs
docket which he still heads is charged with looking at the whole drugs issue through the Office
of the National Coordinator which was recently, albeit quietly transferred there.
The prisons too are congested with thousands who should be in rehabilitation for drug use or
are in prison for drug induced crimes who also urgently need help. Yet nobody in the government
wants to mention the word alcoholism. Uncle Moody is it because your boss ordered that it should
not be mentioned or because he does not mention it nobody below has the guts to do so?
The nearest they come to mentioning this dreaded 'A' word is when they talk of illicit brew.
Uncle Moody can I point out to you that I did not start get to late stage alcoholism with
illicit brews but by starting with your ordinary beer.
HIV figures are daily boosted by careless use of alcohol with nobody seeming to see the
connection yet we hope to fight this scourge of epic proportions.
Schools are rioting all over the place in high schools of which the epitome recently alcohol
quaffing university students ran riot in Nakuru as usual raiding food establishments to stuff
their faces, before repeating the same at funeral of the late Crispin Mbai who was murdered,
causing chaos and many injuries.
Road accidents are exacting an unbelievable and totally unnecessary toll on Kenyans with an
extremely high percentage stemming from our drinking habits.
Yet your boss seems to be leading a calculated campaign to keep the disease of alcoholism
where it has languished from time immemorial, shrouded, in prejudice, superstitions, myths and
outright fallacies.
And it is this that sentences alcoholics to death and their families to immense suffering in
the process. We must become open about this disease and do something about it.
Alcoholism cuts across all sectors of society from the rich and poor to the young and old. I
know of politicians and other bigwigs who are alcoholic or have alcoholic relatives and they are
suffering like anybody else. I know too that many of them are able to send their loved ones to
rehabilitation centers in the United Kingdom or more recently to South Africa.
So why not talk about it so that ordinary wanaanchi here can get treatment? So that we can
get a policy on alcohol: it's manufacture, sale and consumption? So that we can get a policy on
rehabilitation centers?
Uncle Moody if you think the situation is bad now, you haven't seen anything yet for there
are millions of young Kenyans now who are planting or have planted the seed of full blown
alcoholism in themselves and are in the process of maturing in the disease.
When the disease does finally ripen in them, there is going to be a grim harvest. A harvest
of millions of alcoholics with no one knowing anything about the disease, no infrastructure or
personnel for treatment and nowhere to take them.
And by God alcoholics wreak havoc, they steal, lie, cheat, fight and generally course great
pain and distress to all those around them and every year or so will bring another tragic
harvest of their siblings following in their footsteps.
This is not a prediction but a mere statement of fact. We need to break the silence on
alcoholism and start doing something about it. Uncle Moody you are now the number two and since
the President is unwilling or unable to make a move for reasons best known to him it seems as
if the lives of millions of Kenyans are in your hands. It is an accepted fact that it is easier
for an alcoholic to help another alcoholic. But the secret to that is that alcoholic must be in
recovery i.e. sober!
You Sir as I pointed out in the beginning are viewed as a sober person. If there was ever a
time your soberness would place you in good stead, the time is now. Alcoholics and their
families all over Kenya are depending on you for direction that you can easily give them all you
have to do is say, wapewe!
David Ogot is a freelance journalist/producer with personal experience with alcoholism. He
can be reached at goinghomedotcom@yahoo.com Website: www.goinghomekenya.org
A condensed version of this article appeared in The People On Sunday newspaper under the heading 'Uncle Moody" alcoholism and the right mood'
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