Western Kenya region leads in the nationwide consumption of the popular home-brewed spirit chang’aa as well as traditional brews, a new survey by the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) shows.
The report released last month shows that the use of chang’aa is most prevalent in Western at 11.4 per cent, followed by Nyanza at 6.3 percent and the Rift Valley region (3.6%).
Traditional liquor use on the other hand is highest in Western at 12.9 per cent, followed by the Coast region (7.4%) and the Nyanza region (2.2%).
Similarly, the Central region leads in the consumption of potable spirits. And while Nairobi County leads in the consumption of legally-made alcohol, the Central region comes second in the category, highlighting high alcohol abuse in Kenya’s most populous region.
NACADA also examined the prevalence of current use of at least one substance of abuse, where the Western region also turned out to be leading at 26.4 per cent.
Residents of Eastern and Nairobi regions were also found to be using at least one substance at 20.7 and 19.2 percent respectively.
NACADA noted a serious and growing problem of alcohol and drug abuse which it said needs to be addressed.
“The situation has been made worse due to the growing problem of drug abuse in our schools. The most abused drug in Kenya is alcohol followed by tobacco, khat, cannabis, prescription drugs, heroin and cocaine,” the report said.
On overall in Kenya, alcohol was found to be the most abused drug in Kenya, with 3,199,119 of the population affected, followed by Tobacco and Khat at 2,305,929 and a 964,737 affected people respectively.
Cannabis abuse meanwhile affects 518,807 people while prescription drugs affect 60,407 people across the country.
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