From the bars to pulpit: My journey to sobriety
Mr Dennis Mwiti, a prison warder who recovered from alcohol addiction.
What you need to know:
- While recovering at home in Meru, he resumed his drinking and later took a loan of Sh800, 000 to start a business.
- While recovering at home in Meru, he resumed his drinking and later took a loan of Sh800, 000 to start a business.
In April last year, Mr Dennis Mwiti, a prison warder, was dramatically arrested while hiding in a toilet, locked up in a police cell and later sent to a rehabilitation centre in handcuffs.
Mr Mwiti had turned violent to his colleagues, wife and parents, and attempted suicide following a relapse in his fight against alcohol addiction.
He was disappointed that an unexpected encounter with the bottle had ended his six-month stint as a sober, ‘born-again’ Christian.
But today, Mr Mwiti is not only a sober man on a mission to rehabilitate officers struggling with alcohol abuse, but also an ordained pastor at New Life Tabernacle Church.
When the 26-year-old joined the Kenya Prison Service in 2015, he was already hooked to alcohol and several other drugs.
Drinking habit worsened
“I started abusing drugs while in Form Three at Kibirichia Boys in 2011. I took advantage of my privileges as an entertainment captain to sneak in drugs every weekend,” he recounts.
His drinking habit worsened in 2014 after he was selected to join the Administration Police, only for the recruitment to be nullified over irregularities.
Despite his love for the bottle, he was picked to join the Kenya Prison Service, where he managed to remain sober for the nine months he was at the training college. But on graduation day, he spent the night in bars.
“In 2016, I was posted to Industrial Area Prison where I continued to use alcohol. I would abscond duty to have a drink.”
In 2017, the prison warder was involved in a road accident that left him with multiple fractures. He was bed-ridden for a year.
Sh800,000 loan
While recovering at home in Meru, he resumed his drinking and later took a loan of Sh800, 000 to start a business.
“I spentSh400, 000 in setting up a bar at Nkubu town and Sh90, 000 in buying a motorbike. I spent the rest on alcohol and entertaining friends," he recalls. He later closed the bar and consumed the stock with his friends.
Penniless and dejected, the law enforcer became mentally unstable and was on the verge of losing his job. “I kicked my wife out. The next day, I sold my phone for Sh800 and travelled home, where I attempted to hang myself and to take poison several times.”
Battered by alcoholism and on the verge of losing his job, he resolved to seek help from a pastor in 2018. One year after overcoming the addiction, Mr Mwiti is now leading ‘Team Sober Support Group’ at Meru Prison.
