By Peter Ochieng
The government is in race against time to put up treatment and rehabilitation centres in all the 47 counties.
Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Interior and National Administration Kithure Kindiki, on Wednesday inspected the ongoing construction of Miritini drug treatment and rehabilitation centre in Mombasa, where he announced that the national government will partner with devolved units to have centres across the country.
“The National Government is putting up several treatment and rehabilitation centres and will partner with county governments to ensure each of our 47 Counties has such a centre offering affordable, publicly funded services to members of the public receiving treatment and rehabilitation,” he shared.
Kindiki said the Miritini facility will cost Sh1.3 billion upon completion, out of which Sh166 Million has been disbursed.
“It will have treatment, rehabilitation and re-integration programs including training the recovered patients with techinical skills like masonry, tailoring and engineering crafts and providing start up capital for small businesses in line with their skills,” he added.
Miritini, he noted will be a centre of excellence for benchmarking among the county governments and the African Countries.
The Centre is already operational and is treating 50 inpatients and 300 outpatients free of charge, with the capacity expected to rise five times on completion.
The CS who has been moving in various parts of the country to spearhead the fight against drug and alcohol abuse, said the war on illicit alcohol, narcotic drugs, and psychotropic substances entails the complete suppression of both the supply and demand.
“To suppress demand, treatment, rehabilitation, and reintegration of addicts remains a key objective of the government.”
In Kilifi County, the CS said the government will acquire parts of the Chakama Ranch where the controversial cleric Paul Mackenzie led his followers in a ‘fast to death to meet Jesus,’ and build a memorial to remind Kenyans of the ‘Shakahola massacre.’
Over 400 people died.
