Pain of alcoholism: IT student and varsity worker speak out

An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) student and a Moi University worker are fighting to earn trust and rebuild their lives as they embark on a courageous journey of recovery from the grips of drug addiction.

The duo were among 12 alcohol addicts who were discharged from a Moiben Rehabilitation Centre in Uasin Gishu County last Friday.

Silah Kiplimo dropped out of South Eastern Kenya University in Kitui in 2019, after his addiction to cheap alcohol worsened. He was a second year student pursuing a Bachelors degree in ICT and his poor family in Moiben had high hopes in him.

“I had literally become a zombie. I could wake up with bad hangovers and instead of finding ways to become sober, I would go out to look for more alcohol. Liquor was available, and at cheap rates in areas around the university,” he recalls.

He goes on to say: “After quitting studies, I returned to my village in Moiben. I was taken to a rehab, and it is while there that I remembered that I was a university student with an ambition to complete my studies and take part in nation building.”

He said he had since gone back to South Eastern Kenya University to apply for a second chance to complete his degree, and he has been granted an opportunity to pick up from where he left. He pledges to be a champion of sobriety, saying the future of several youth was bleak thanks to irresponsible drinking.

Moiben Rehabilitation Centre, where Kiplimo and 11 others has been in the last three months was set up by Uasin Gishu County to help young people ruined by alcohol addiction, Director of the County’s liquor and licensing board Koiyo Maiyo, said.

A Moi University worker, Barnabas Serem, who was also among the graduates, narrates how he has slept in trenches in Eldoret during his 20 years of overindulgence in alcohol and chewing of tobacco.

“ I would pass by my drinking den and enjoy my drink until late in the night or at times, early in the morning and then report to work as usual. Initially, no one knew that I was an addict, but it reached a point missing work became a habit, and when called, I faked illnesses,” the varsity worker says.

Serem says chewing tobacco and daily consumption of alcohol resulted in stomach complications.

“In June (this year), doctors told me after tests that I had an infection in my large intestines. The medics attributed the infection to overindulgence in alcohol and chewing of tobacco. They warned that my life was at a high risk if I don’t quit .

“After learning about it, I got information about a rehabilitation centre in Moiben. A county official encouraged me to enroll in the rehab. I hesitated, but I remembered the doctors’ warnings and made a decision to be rehabilitated. I have decided to quit and I am returning to work, a sober man,” he said.

Serem said he lost trust among most of his relatives, family members and colleagues during the days of addiction. He says, as he gets sober, he is fighting to regain trust. “No one believed me when I complained that I was unwell. My family and friends blamed everything that happened to me on alcohol,” he added.

Uasin Gishu Health executive Abraham Serem said counseling was part of Kiplimo, Barnabas and other ten addicts discharged in Moiben. The executive said the rehabilitation services were free, noting that helping addicts regain sobriety was an expensive venture.

“This was the second graduation. The county has been spending from Sh120,000 to Sh150,000 to rehabilitate each addict,” he said.