Drugs/NACADA
Picture this.
At 16, he was already battling a drug addiction serious enough to require treatment.
The teenager was not alone.
In the six months to December 2025, hundreds of children below the age of 18 sought treatment for drug and substance use.
The revelations lift the lid on a disturbing glimpse into a drug crisis ravaging schools and homes across the country.
The worrying development is contained in the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse’s 23rd Biannual Report on the Status of Alcohol and Drug Abuse in the country.
For Nacada, the numbers are no longer just statistics.
They are a warning.
“The problem of drugs and substance abuse in our schools is a reality that can no longer be ignored,” Nacada CEO Anthony Omerikwa says.
According to the report tabled in Parliament, drug use among children begins at about 14 years and peaks at 16.
Of the 282 under-18s who sought treatment in various accredited treatment facilities during the period, 189 were aged 16, 78 were 15 and 15 were 14.
“Analysis reveals that there is an emerging and worrying trend with the growing population of adolescents accessing addiction services before the age of 18 years,” the report states.
In nearly eight out of every 10 cases, cannabis was the main substance involved. Alcohol use followed at 14.3 per cent and 2.71 per cent.
Nacada describes the finding as “undeniable evidence” that cannabis is becoming an emerging challenge in schools and among young people.
“The trend suggests early initiation into drug use among school-going children, exposing them to adverse health, educational, social and developmental consequences,” Omerikwa says.
The report states that sustained supply and distribution networks and growing demand, particularly among young people, have perpetuated the problem.
According to the report, police and other enforcement agencies seized 21,080.3kg of cannabis between July and December 2025, the highest quantity recorded in six months.
That was a sharp increase from 12,752.52kg seized during the first six months of the year.
“The cannabis market continues to expand, with record-high cannabis seizures during the reporting period, an indication of increasing availability, trafficking and consumption,” Omerikwa says.
Some 3,377,384 litres of illicit alcohol were seized nationally, with Kakamega accounting for the highest seizures at 386,916 litres, followed by Kisii at 366,936 litres and Trans Nzoia at 348,574 litres.
A 2024 Nacada study among university students found that 26.6 per cent were currently using at least one drug or substance of abuse — roughly one in every four students surveyed.
Alcohol was the most common substance, used by 18.6 per cent of students. Cannabis followed at 10.7 per cent, tobacco stood at 12 per cent, khat at 10.2 per cent and shisha at 4.6 per cent.
One in every 14 university students uses cigarettes, one in every 17 uses vape/e-cigarettes, while one in every nine uses at least one type of cannabis.
More worrying is the presence of harder drugs.
The study found current use of heroin among 1.7 per cent of university students, cocaine among 1.6 per cent and methamphetamine among 1.4 per cent.
Nacada says 8.7 per cent of university students were struggling with alcohol addiction.
The report reveals the problem facing schools is part of a much wider national crisis, with the figures painting a picture of a country fighting alcohol and drug abuse.
The latest national survey conducted by Nacada found that 17.5 per cent of Kenyans aged between 15 and 65 — about 4.73 million people — were currently using at least one drug or substance of abuse.
Alcohol remains the country’s biggest substance-use problem.
About 3.29 million Kenyans were current alcohol users, while 2.3 million were using tobacco. More than 1.35 million people were estimated to be addicted to alcohol.
According to the report, 1.35 million Kenyans suffer from severe substance use disorders; tobacco accounts for 887,627 people, while cannabis accounts for 234,855 people.
In public service, Nacada’s report shows that 44.5 per cent of employees had ever used alcohol, 15.3 per cent had ever used tobacco, 11.3 per cent khat, 8.2 per cent cannabis, 2.3 per cent prescription drugs, 1.3 per cent cocaine and 1.2 per cent heroin.
“Data also showed that the prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUD) among employees in the public sector workplace in Kenya was 13.2 per cent.”
“Further categorisation of AUDs by severity showed that 5.7 per cent of the employees in the public sector workplace had a mild alcohol use disorder (AUD), 3.0 per cent had a moderate AUD while 4.5 per cent had a severe AUD,” the report says.
But even as alcohol dominates the country’s substance-abuse crisis, the drug market itself is changing.
Nacada says Kenya is increasingly becoming a market and transit route for synthetic drugs.
“Kenya is witnessing a significant shift in the illicit drug market from traditional narcotics such as heroin and cocaine towards synthetic drugs, particularly methamphetamine and ketamine,” the report states.
“Synthetic drugs pose heightened public health and security risks due to their potency, addictive nature, accessibility, and the adaptability of production and distribution networks.”
During the reporting period, authorities seized 1,053.91kg of methamphetamine — the highest quantity recorded since the drug emerged in Kenya in 2022.
More than 1,044kg was seized in Mombasa.
The changing market has also brought substances that were previously unfamiliar to many Kenyans.
Wastewater analysis conducted by Nacada, the Pharmacy and Poisons Board and the Government Chemist detected new psychoactive substances, including alpha-ethyltryptamine, benzofurans and synthetic cathinones.
“The findings point to a rapidly evolving and increasingly complex drug use landscape in Kenya. National capacity to detect and identify emerging substances remains constrained,” the report says.
Nacada cites inadequate laboratory infrastructure, limited specialised equipment and a shortage of technical expertise.
But perhaps the most painful part of the crisis comes when a young person finally seeks help.
Kenya has about 2.7 million people in need of treatment, yet the country can treat fewer than 10,000 people annually.
Nacada describes the treatment deficit as “critical”.
The gap is worsened by expensive treatment, limited public facilities and a shortage of trained specialists.
Data from 96 treatment facilities covering 4,903 clients shows that addiction is also becoming more complicated.
Nearly 90 per cent of those seeking treatment were male, compared with 10.1 per cent female.
More than 74 per cent were aged between 15 and 39.
Alcohol accounted for 48.8 per cent of cases, while cannabis accounted for 27.7 per cent.
Increasingly, however, people are using more than one substance.
“Some 74.4 per cent of the clients seeking treatment ... had presented with problems of poly-drug use,” the report says.
This makes treatment more difficult and increases the risk of relapse.
Nearly one in three admissions — 30.7 per cent — were people returning for treatment after previously receiving help.
Nacada says this shows that “relapse continues to be a major setback in addiction recovery”.
Families are playing the biggest role in getting people into treatment.
More than half of referrals, 54.5 per cent, came from family members.
Schools accounted for 5.9 per cent, suggesting that learning institutions are increasingly becoming an important point of intervention.
That intervention may need to come much earlier.
“The problem of SUDs among adolescents initiates at age 14 and peaks at age 16,” Nacada warns.
During the reporting period, the authority reached 17,154 teachers, learners and parents through prevention programmes in 25 counties.
It also trained 995 religious leaders and reached 4,124 stakeholders through dissemination of the national policy on alcohol, drugs and substance abuse.
But Nacada says prevention efforts cannot succeed without adequate funding.
Instant Analysis
For a country already struggling to contain substance abuse among adults, the emergence of addiction among children should be a national alarm. Because when a 14-year-old begins using drugs and a 16-year-old ends up in rehabilitation, the crisis is no longer somewhere out there. It is already in the classroom.
