For 20 years, I saw heroin, not my daughter

Deborah Were was a 17-year-old schoolgirl in Mombasa when she became hooked on heroin.

Thirty years and four children later, she is rebuilding her life after going through a rehabilitation programme.

NARCOTICS

The port city of Mombasa is Kenya’s tourist haven, playing a key role in the country’s economy.

However, it is also a key hub for the narcotics trade.

While much of the drugs are in transit to other countries, people like Deborah are evidence that local consumption has been growing with devastating effects.

Mombasa alone has an estimated 30,000 people using drugs, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Many of them are targeted by dealers when they are in school.

"I became hooked to heroin after I started using it to relief my stress after I was impregnated. A friend gave me heroin to forget my sorrows. Little did I know I was digging my own grave, my life changed after that one taste,” said Ms Were.

After she became pregnant, she dropped out of school and became a commercial sex worker in order to fund her drug use.

3 TIMES

As if this was not enough, she was infected with HIV.

The National Aids and STIs Control Programme estimates that people who inject drugs are responsible for 3.8 per cent of new HIV infections.

The prevalence rate among this population is 18 per cent, three times that of the general population (5.6 per cent).

Today, Deborah is trying to pick up the pieces of her life after joining a rehabilitation programme.

She now works as a peer educator at Reach Out Centre Trust in Old Town helping to sensitise young people on the effects of drug use.

“Drugs ruined my relationship with family, especially my mother and my children, who rejected me. The rejection sent me deeper into the hole of addiction,’’ said the mother of four.

When her first child was born, the baby was taken away from her because she was in no state to take care of her. This was repeated for the other three children.

“My firstborn is now 21 years old, I saw her on Facebook after 20 years. My second-born is in Italy - she was taken by her father’s relative.

SECOND CHANCE

"Her father was also an addict but he was murdered. My 12- and 11 year-olds are in a children’s home, but I'm allowed to live with them during holidays after I was confirmed not to be a danger to them,” added the 37-year old woman.

She would love to be reunited with her four children under one roof.

“I know I failed as a mother but I deserve a second chance. When I meet their age-mates, I reminisce on the lost opportunity,” she said.

“If I had a job, I'm sure they would allow me to live with my children who are staying in an orphanage. But how would I fend for them?” she asked.

Lack of jobs is a challenge facing the recovering drug addicts, she added.

“No one will trust you with their jobs due to stigmatisation and criminalisation associated with drug use,” said Ms Were.

Her journey into addiction started with smoking bhang before she graduated to hard drugs.

HAUNTED

After being rehabilitated at Reach Out Trust Centre, Ms Were is now on Medically Assisted Therapy (MAT).

“It has changed my life, I am now healthy but I am always haunted by my past.

“Drugs enter into your blood, hunger is better since it can be cured by food but drug addiction has a certain satanic urge that makes you want more and more. You can kill due to lack of it, don’t use it. Once you test that’s the end of you,” she added.

Reach Out Centre Trust Executive Director Taib Abdhulrahman said the Coast region has a population of 30,000 people addicted to drugs.

He said the main challenge for more rehabilitated youths is lack of income activity.

“We have 18,000 injecting drug users, apart from rehabilitating our programmes involves reaching out to the addicts and sensitising them on the dangers of using drugs. The community should also stop stigmatisation,” he warned.

ADDICTS

He said most addicted youths, especially those who did not go for rehabilitation, are now embracing MAT to cure the addiction.

The MAT programme was initiated in 2015. It is the use of medications with counselling and behavioural therapies to treat substance abuse disorders.

It is primarily used for the treatment of addiction to opioids such as heroin and prescription pain relievers that contain opiates.

There is only one MAT clinic run by the Mombasa County government in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime situated at Kisauni dispensary.

It has been operating for five months during which it has helped more than 569 former drug addicts.

Dr Mahad Hassan, who is in charge of the county-run rehabilitation centre, said besides treating patients with methadone, the clinic also works in partnership with dropout centres such as MEWA and Reach Out.

The two also have vocational programmes that help recovering addicts find income-generating activities to support them.

HOT AND COLD

The government has blown hot and cold in the war on drugs. President Uhuru Kenyatta at one time ordered the Kenya Navy to blow up a ship on which cocaine was found.

The government also allowed the extradition of two sons of the late drug baron Ibrahim Akasha to the US on drug related charges.

During a visit to Mombasa in 2015, the President announced that a rehabilitation centre would be set up at the Miritini National Youth Service College.

However, the centre is yet to be set up nearly two years later.