A Drug & Violence Free Kenya Project
Posted by African Press International on September 21, 2008
The Four Pillars
By
Armstrong O’Brian Ongera, Jr. and Dr. Patrick Basham
Given the rise in youth violence, there is an urgent need to produce immediate solutions to this drug-fueled crisis. The sad reality is that the substance abuse problem is also the root cause of the spread of HIV/AIDS, and the high levels of teenage pregnancy and violence.
Drugs are the central ingredient in the creation of an undisciplined, disorganized, violent, and unfocused society. In a Capital Youth Caucus Association (CYCA) research study carried out between August and October 2007 in Meru, drug dealing and consumption was found to lead to violence, murder, school dropouts, teenage pregnancy, and criminal tendencies in the community.
It is against this background that CYCA and the Democracy Institute seek to initiate an evidence-based nationwide campaign, the Four Pillars: a Drug & Violence Free Kenya Project, to campaign against drugs and violence in our schools and communities.
There is an immediate need to enlighten Kenyan youth on the general implications of drug taking, especially those drugs commonly used by young Kenyans, such as cocaine, marijuana, Khat, brown sugar, glue, bhangi, cigarettes, and alcohol.
The objective of our Four Pillars: A Drug & Violence Free Kenya Project is to mainstream youth participation in fighting drugs and promoting nonviolent conflict communications as an avenue to increase the engagement of young Kenyans in a society free from vice.
Fortunately, the debate over how to begin remedying the drug and violence crises need not take place in a vacuum. Kenyans can learn from anti-drug and anti-crime policies that have been successfully implemented across Eastern and Western Europe, and even farther afield, in countries such as Australia, Canada, and the United States. These successes can help guide Kenyans to those policies likely to be truly effective.
Effective anti-drug and anti-crime policies require a flexible, innovative, and integrated range of evidence-based prevention, treatment, and enforcement options.
The Four Pillars is a coordinated, comprehensive approach that balances public order and public health in order to create a safer and a healthier society. A Four Pillars approach to drug addiction (prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and enforcement) was first implemented in Switzerland and Germany in the 1990s, followed by Australia seven years ago.
Where comprehensively and carefully implemented, the Four Pillars approach has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the number of drug users consuming drugs on the street, a significant drop in overdose deaths, and a reduction in the infection rates for HIV and hepatitis with, critically, a commensurate drop in criminal behavior.
Our strategy recognizes an urgent need for an evidence-based, multisectoral intervention to stem the tide of drug abuse and violent activity that is threatening, most immediately, the functioning of Kenyan schools as well as the long-term economic, reproductive, and social health of Kenyan society.
The four pillars of our anti-drug and anti-violence strategy are, first, prevention, which involves promoting healthy families and communities, protecting child and youth development, promoting reproductive health, preventing or delaying the start of substance use among young people, and reducing harm associated with substance use. Successful prevention efforts aim to improve the health of the general population and reduce differences in health between groups of people.
The second pillar is treatment, which offers individuals access to services that help people come to terms with problem substance use and lead healthier lives, including peer-based counseling, daytime and residential treatment, housing support, and ongoing medical care.
The third pillar is harm reduction, which reduces the spread of deadly communicable diseases, especially HIV/AIDS, preventing drug overdose deaths, increasing substance users’ contact with health care services and drug treatment programs, and reducing street-level drug consumption.
The fourth pillar is enforcement, which recognizes the paramount need for public order and safety in Nairobi’s neighborhoods and those of other cities, towns, and villages. It targets organized crime, drug dealing, drug houses, and problem businesses involved in the drug trade.
Such an integrated approach is a cost-effective instrument for alleviating drug-related problems. For every shilling spent on these programs, seven public health and criminal justice shillings will be saved. An integrated approach is good for Kenya’s legal system, is good for Kenyan law enforcement, and is good for Kenya’s public health care system.
Our Four Pillars strategy certainly will not resolve all of Kenya’s drug problems. At the very least, these programs provide some hope for law-abiding people who want to live in clean, livable, business-friendly neighborhoods.
The Four Pillars strategy is not a panacea but it is a place to start. In our view, it should form the foundation of any rational, integrated, and compassionate approach to the nation’s drug and violence problems.
We urge the coalition government and MPs of all parties to provide immediate, tangible support for this politically independent project to improve Kenyans’ quality of life.
# # #
Mr. Ongera directs the Nairobi-based Capital Youth Caucus Association (cycanetwork@gmail.com). Dr. Basham, a drug policy expert, directs the Washington-based Democracy Institute (info@democracyinstitute.org).
–
Armstrong O’Brian Ongera, Jnr.
Executive Director
Capital Youth Caucus Association(CYCA)
P.O.Box 5956-00200
Nairobi-Kenya.
tel. + 254 20 212 9281
cell. + 254 720 594 503
—-
Capital Youth Caucus Association (CYCA), is non-partisan, and non-profit organization in Kenya focused to teaching the youth on Democracy,Cultural Interdependence,Non-violent Conflict,and Human Rights among the in-and-out of school youth in Kenya through organizing ‘The CYCA Roundtable Discussion Forums’; and ‘The CYCA Experiential Learning and Cultural Interdependence Projects’ in rural-urban Kenya.
* * *
We have launched an 18 month Petition to promote the Four Pillars: A Drug & Violence Free Society Project for Kenya.Kindly stand in solidarity with us,by signing it on:
www.gopetition.com/petitions/capital-youth-caucus-association.html
————-
Published by African Press International – API
