Miss Hannah

ALCOHOLISM DOESN’T HAVE TO BE LOUD
Dazzling in a red dress, juggling car keys and smartphone on her hands ,she is appealingly elegant, confident, assertive and very enthusiastic about life, though she insists that she is an introvert. It is hard to believe that just a few months earlier Miss Hannah had a serious bout with low self esteem and didn’t really have much to live for anymore. She had hit rock bottom.

From Social drinker to Alcoholism
This is the story of Hannah …., aged 26, a high school teacher at a reputable institution in Kiambu county. Unlike many stories you have heard before about alcoholics and alcoholism, her story with alcohol doesn’t come with a lot of drama and controversy, no visits to the police stations and no public outbursts or embarrassing moments. Her trip with alcoholism was silent, she attended to her duties daily and did the minimum, just enough to ensure that she does get fired. Once she left work, she would pick herself a bottle or two of her favorite liquor which was usually Gin or Konyagi and head to her place or for absolute privacy go to her cousins place which was nearby. She never really went out to clubs or drunk in noisy pubs, it was just her, her alcohol and her thoughts. She said that sometimes while drunk she would cry for hours for no reasons because she could not recognize who she had become, she was once very ambitious and couldn’t figure out where her ambition and general love for life went, all she was looking forward to was her bottle of gin.

Levuka Treatment Center
Hannah work life and her home life had started being affected by drinking and sometimes she would disappear for days while she was on a drinking binge, it would force her family to look for her and bring her home. That is exactly what happened the last time before she was brought to the Levuka Centre for treatment. At school, the principal and the head of department had noticed that she had changed and wasn’t performing her duties as she did before. They had tried several times to call her to sit down with them for meetings but she always managed to evade them, cleverly. She was hanging on by a thread at work, luckily for her, she still had some discipline even as an alcoholic and never ever drunk during work hours or attended her lessons visibly drunk because this would be the last straw and she would have been fired. As we speak Hannah is back at work and thriving, despite the alcoholism she was never fired, she played safe. On the home front the first person who ever mentioned or insinuated that she could have a drinking problem was her father and he said it as a by the way or a joke. To get the context of her home situation it is important to mention that she already had two brothers who had visited Levuka Center for treatment of their alcoholism and compared to them she was a mild case. The factor that she had two siblings who had already visited the center turned out to be a blessing in disguise for her. The brother who had just finished his stint at the center encouraged her to go and also supported / supports her recovery to this very moment.

Alcoholic Gene.
Hannah says that alcoholism does not have to be loud for it to be a problem and sometimes it’s not because of problems that you become an alcoholic. Sometimes you are just born with the gene that predisposes you to become an alcoholic. She says that she could never really pin point the exact reason why she drunk, while she wasn’t stressed, she was making good money from her side business of rearing and selling chicken and her job as a teacher, she had no relationship problems but she still drunk herself silly.

Life Skills
Hanna is now glowing ,has added healthy weight ,sober, focused and a great peer at Levuka treatment treatment center , where she pops in regularly to encourage the residents undergoing treatment , that is possible to be sober again. She thanks the counselors at Levuka for teaching her life skills, that she now able to relate and socialize with her friends without the need of being high.

Philemon Njoroge

A Walking Miracle
The story of Mary Wanjiru Njoroge

“Pombe ni nusu ya kifo”
Mary Wanjiru , shy at first ,an introvert, her beauty clearly evident but scarred by life in the harsh drinking and prostitution alleys of Mai Mahiu a trackers transit town in the rift valley.
She opens up, “Pombe ni nusu ya kifo” ( alcohol makes you a zombie) “ I have wasted 14 years of my life, I have lost my family and it’s only through prayers that am alive and HIV free”.
Early life
Mary Wanjiru has lived a life that is full of scars both internal and external, It is evident from the prominent scar that sits across her face. She got this particular scar from a misunderstanding with one of her drinking mates after the friend’s husband had sent her for alcohol but she was arrested with it before she could deliver it to them, when she tried to explain this to them her friend overreacted and slashed her face with a broken beer bottle. This is just one of the many stories that made up Mary’s life on a day-to-day basis in her 14-year-long drinking career, as she refers to it.
She hails from Mai Mahiu and is just 38 years old, but looks a bit older than her actual age. This isher third stint at Levuka Treatment Center. Her first visit was in 2018 and the second was in 2019.

Her “drinking Career” began in the year 2009 after her husband walked out on her and left her with three children and no means to support them. In her depression and confusion, she turned to the bottle and met a group of ladies who had the same interests. In a few months to come, she would become a regular at the infamous “Back street” which was a famous den in Mai Mahiu where Drunkards and Prostitutes hung out. She stopped recognizing which day of the week it was and nothing else mattered not even her motherly duties. She ended up losing her children after some time. She stopped going home. The Rift Valley Hope church came to her rescue for the very first time by taking care of the children she had neglected. A mother of three gifted children, her firstborn waiting to join university, while her last born in a prestigious national school.

Battle With Addiction
Pastor Isaac Karanja of Rift Valley Hope church whose mission, is to help restore and give hope to broken lives through the power and love of the gospel of Jesus Christ, brought her to Levuka all three times but not before the pastor had tried all other means of rehabilitation and failed. He had brought her to the Church and taught her and others how to make the traditional Baskets (Kyondos) which would be sold overseas so that they earn a living. He had also severally got her a house to stay in and paid her rent, the last time this happened was in 2015, she says that she ran away to Kikambura in Kikuyu town after she had met a guy at “Back streets” who became a close friend to her and used to work at Dagoretti gardens. She disappeared with him for six months before she came back. That was the first time she was brought to Levuka, after first being taken to hospital and doctors recommending that she stops indulging in alcohol completely.
Life at ‘Back streets’ wasn’t a smooth ride, you had to be a survivor or someone who really didn’t care much for living or dying. She says that among the many friends that she knew at ‘Back streets,’ there are only two who are still alive, the rest have succumbed to alcohol related deaths and HIV
AIDS which is very rampant in this area. Mary is very thankful to have survived the streets for all these years without getting the dreaded virus, she confirms that her recent test at Levuka confirmed that she was HIV-negative. In her 14 years living in the back streets of Mai Mahiu she has been beaten, stripped, and raped several times over , sometimes because of drinking too much, she would wake up naked without having a clue of what had happened to her. At times when she had the urge for alcohol and couldn’t afford it she would pay for it with the only asset she had, her body.

Hope and Soberness
Mary of today is a sober clean , well groomed lady, she was the lead singer for praise and worship at Levuka open family day event. She is extremely thankful to Levuka counselors for not giving up on her three times veterans at top rated the rehabilitation center , she gives her gratitude her Pastor Isaac Karanja of Rift Valley Hope church they never give up on her.

Philemon Njoroge

Hi, my name is Njoroge and I was born on 23rd of March 1990. I was raised in Makadara area which is along Jogoo Road and went to a local primary school called St Micheal’s Primary School. At this institution is where I had my first encounter with the booze. My father enjoyed his bottle almost as much as I do now and seldom send me to the local wines and spirits to get him his favorite sachets, at the time hot liquor was sold in plastic bags that we referred to as sachets.

At the age of 12 years old I drunk my first alcohol on my usual pick up errand for my father at the local wines and spirits. I tore a small hole into the sachet that I had bought for my father and had a taste. This was the beginning of my long love affair with alcohol. Throughout that year I would sip through the sachet and when I got home would hurriedly put it into a glass and add some water as I served my dad, he never found out that I was shorting him on the sachets I bought for him.

I continued with my trickery until class seven when I met a partner in crime by the name Peris, she was my new desk-mate and we shared a common love for alcohol at an early. She also had easy access to alcohol like me since her father was a drunk too and used to regularly send her to the wines and spirits to get him liquor. She was very resourceful and would carry some alcohol everyday for the both of us to drink, Our favorite time to drink was always during P.E.

Alcohol was a usual part of my life by the time I had cleared my class 8 exams and during that holiday me and my friends from school would meet up almost daily for the proverbial drink yet we were only teenagers. I also upgraded my social skills this holiday by learning how to smoke bhang in preparation for high school.

I was fortunate enough to join Muchiri Muchiri High School in Ruai where I developed skills of jumping over the school fence to obtain my drugs of choice for me and the rest of my cronies. This continued until 3rd form where I confessed my crimes to the school administration and found salvation, I was suspended for a while but was able to resume and do my form 4 exams without incident.

Shortly after completing high school I found a job at a local car wash at Uhuru Estate and due to peer pressure I was back again on the alcoholism roller-costa and this time I was doing the trifecta of alcohol, bhang and khat (miraa). This was in the year 2010, I had joined a computer college and a driving school where I attained the relevant certificates, however my alcoholism was on the rise and I could not keep a permanent job, most of my jobs were casual. In 2012 I moved to New Kaputei Town in Kisaju as a way to change my environment and maybe reduce my reliance on alcohol. This did not really work in fact it may have had the opposite effect. I was at rock bottom and to support my habit I did many casual jobs including picking up bottles and cleaning the local drinking den in order to get free alcohol. I had been on this winding downward spiral until early this year when due to some trouble accessioned by alcoholism I had to leave New Town Kaputei and move in with my brother at Mukuru Kwa Reuben. The life at Mukuru Kwa Reuben mainly consisted of drinking with my brother and this was not helping my situation,

Luckily through the efforts of my mother and well wishers including a loan facility from Yawezekana sacco, I managed to get a place at Levuka treatment center and I’m very grateful to have received this life changing opportunity.

Martin Githae

My name is Martin Githae, I was born and raised in a Christian family, My family was deeply religious and drinking was a taboo in our home,I had never touched a drop of alcohol until the age of 16;my first time was during a Christmas party with a couple of friends and there was a lot of alcohol flowing. In the countryside this period was considered to be extremely festive and the local traditional brew was served without limit and even the girls were enjoying it with ease, this really tempted me and I decided to indulge. I WAS HOOKED…..
From that first taste I became hooked and through my high school and college years the habit worsened, at the age of 22 I got gainful employment at the Jamii Bora Trust as a loans officer, life was good and money was flowing, I was popular and I had many friends, something that I assumed was due to my indulgence in alcohol and the confidence I exuded when I drank. Due to the drinking habit I lost my Job as a loans officer which drove me deeper into the habit, to the point that I lost my family.
My alcoholism was gradual and came with its own set of symptoms which included; persistent hangovers,morning jitters,hallucinations,withdrawals, this was a ;lot to handle and my health quickly deteriorated, at this point I had no job,no family,no hope,just the bottle and at this point I had finally hit rock bottom.

Earlier this year after years of living rock bottom, my parents re-introduced me to mama Ingrid Munro who was my former employer at Jamii Bora and the proprietor of the Tumaini Program. Where I went through Levuka Treatment Center a Jamii Bora Trust Rehabitation center,and after 90 Days am completely sober and now a productive member of the society.
I still do participate in Levuka After Care Programe to avoid relapse and to give the current students hope and encourangement, and through them I got a job to rebuld my life again.
Above all my God bless Jamii bora Trust the patrons of Levuka ,My counselors and moreso Mama Ingrid Monro for Making me stand on my feet again,that is the Serenity and Joy of sobriety that will always flower my life forever by the grace of God.

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Grishon Munene

They say looks don’t define a man. It turns out he is highly intelligent and generous by nature. But the slight scar on his face is a trademark of a young man who has been through hell! His many escapades are immense and rare for many to survive.
The confidence he shows was a fairy tale before he joined Levuka in May 2nd 2017. For you see Grishon Munene Muchungu, had abused all the privileges accorded to him by the family and he was on the verge of despair. Now 33 years on this earth, Munene has faked death countless time!
The only reason his parents once bail him out from Kasarani Police Station, is because he made a voluntary decision to go back to a rehabilitation Centre. “They had given up on me since I was so chaotic, a nuisance and a mischief since High School days,” he regrettably reiterates.
Being the only boy in a family of two, he started his rebellious act after completing his primary school. Upon sitting for his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) at Mountain View Academy, he joined Moi High School Mbiruri in Embu where disobedience took the better part of him.

In Form 2 he was expelled from the school for being involved in a strike planning. He had already started taking alcohol! “It is while in secondary school that I had my first taste of alcohol which I remember to have been weird,” he remembers.

After being banished from the school at only 15years, he escaped from their Nairobi home where he grew and crossed the border to Tanzania where he found himself without a single coin in Dar es Salaam! Traveling through Mombasa he passed through the Lunga Lunga border point without papers and was only rescued by a whore who took pity on him lying outside the Sheraton Hotel.
Lucky enough his father worked for an international audit firm which had a branch in Tanzania. They were able to identify the office and took him to the Manager who contacted the father. When the dad received the information, he booked the next flight to come pick him up. Mind you, the dad was away from the country for work related issues.
The love of the parents was demonstrated when they got a new school for the rebellious teen. “They got me a place at Aga Khan High School since my offer at Sunshine school along Lang’ata road had failed,’ he narrates, ‘I never bothered with books.”
Aga Khan is a day school where instead of appreciating second chance seriously, he saw as a golden opportunity to guzzle alcohol. He managed to hustle on the side which gave him money to swallow a quarter of vodka each morning before he attended classes! Nonetheless, he was able to escape detention for more than a year. “I would take shots just before entering the school gate,” he says.
Aga Khan School prides itself for discipline so when he was caught he wasn’t spared. “I was expelled once again without recourse. My ‘old man” had given up on me by this time so my aunt took me to Ruiru High School,” he says, “This was a rotten den which served as a holiday camp for most students.”
Lawlessness was rampant in the new school where drugs like bhang, changaa among others circulated. “I was forever high!” Surprisingly enough, he sat for his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) and he managed to get a C+. “My dad thought I was stupid so besides paying the school fees nobody bothered with me.”
After school he did driving and joined Nairobi Institute of Business Studies (NIBS) college for a course in Sales and Marketing but he dropped out of college not for lack of funds but because he was always drunk. He was forever in trouble with the law and even when he joined Griffins College later, for a course in Hospitality Management, he had to drop out of college again. He was into alcohol and weed all the time!
His side hustles of producing music for his friends gave him enough money to neutralize his vices. The next thing Munene remembers is being involved in road accident and being locked at a police station for drunk driving. In 2008 his parents had pity on him and took him to Asumbi Rehabilitation Centre in Karen hoping the hyper youth would change. He started appreciating himself at the Centre.
After coming out he decide to do branding and programming. His business plans brought him good money but faded a year later (2009) and once again he went back to misbehaving.
He was forced to drop out Mt Kenya University where he was polishing his skills in computer Graphics, Programming and Branding. Eventually last year, after trying so many things and taking too much alcohol, he was involved in another serious accident which broke the ‘camel’s neck! It was while at the police cells he realized that he was wasting his intellect and he cried for help.
“I had reached the end of the road and was not sure what would happen to me,” he remorsefully said. Help came in form of Levuka, a Centre that Jamii Bora started to rehabilitate people who have a problem with alcohol and drugs. His mother drove him to the Centre.
Tom Thiong’o, the Director of the Centre thinks highly of Munene, “He is a very intelligent young man who has been very positive about the help offered here,” Tom confided in me, something that I have since established since he joined the rehab. “Munene came here with a purpose and he absorbed everything that was said to him by the counselors and the doctors which I believe will help him in his healing process and to be a useful member of the society.
Munene concurs with these observations and says that it is at Levuka that he realized how he had wasted his life and now he looks forward to have purposeful life. At Levuka he discovered that alcoholism is a disease that leaves many stigmatized and with low self-esteem. “I discovered myself at the Centre and I saw much potential in my colleagues most of whom suffer from humiliation and low self-esteem,” he explains, “I want to give these people a professional presence and return their dignity even if they cannot afford it.”
During his three month treatment at Levuka he interacted with patients who gave him his ‘groove’ back! “The counselors were very good and I am truly grateful. I meditated a lot and since I saw so much potential in the patients who are admitted at Levuka, I want to help them in one way or another. I realized the number of times I missed death so narrowly and I am now focused and want to give back to the society,” he tells me.
The father of 7 years old boy has a mark that cannot be broken. He says that alcohol is a vice that the society should be cautious of. “I am very positive about the future and I believe everything is possible with the right attitude.” He is already helping his friend Jesse, a florist to set up website that drives traffic to him for online business. Jesse was also at Levuka.
We wrapped up the interview as he joyfully said he was going to pick his son from school. This shows how focused and having a purpose in life can make you a valuable asset in society.