•Mvita MP pledges to roll out a drug rehabilitation subsidy if he wins on August 9.
•Also to strengthen the needle exchange program if successful in the race.
Image: COURTESY
Mombasa Governor hopeful Abdulswamad Nassir has unveiled an elaborate plan to combat the menace of drug abuse in the county and its surroundings.
He said it was regrettable that the drug menace was tearing families apart, amid dismal actions to help people battling addiction.
“Whether we like it or not, we cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that drugs and alcohol have become a real problem that is tearing our families apart,” Nassir said.
The Mvita MP on Sunday said the five-point plan will go a long way to eliminating drug addiction in the coastal city if he succeeds Hassan Joho on August 9.
He said 15 per cent of ‘Skills Mtaani” opportunities – a proposed vocational training programme – will be reserved for recovering addicts to enable them to get means of survival.
“We will set aside at least 15 per cent of the opportunities in Skills Mtaani for vocational training for them. This will give them the opportunity to earn a living in their new lives,” Nassir said.
The lawmaker said he would also set up Methadone Centres in every constituency to make them more accessible to addicts undergoing recovery.
Nassir further said his administration will strengthen the needle exchange programme to help reduce cases of transmission of other deadly diseases.
“Many people have misunderstood the purpose of such programmes. They are not intended to encourage addiction but rather to keep addicts safe until they recover,” he said.
“There is no point leaving Mombasa’s addicts to contract serious illnesses that leave them with permanent scars even when they recover from addiction,” Nassir added.
He spoke during an event to mark the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Mombasa, as part of the campaign to rid the region of the drugs menace.
The lawmaker added that his administration would also roll out a drug rehabilitation subsidy to support existing facilities to offer the services affordably.
“Our aim is to make it accessible even to the underprivileged in society,” the MP, presently chairman of the Public Investments Committee, said.
The MP said his team would also put up ‘halfway centres’ in each sub-county in order to “provide decent living conditions for addicts whose illness have driven them to homelessness and insecurity.”
The county government, should he win, will also reintegrate addicts who have recovered, Nassir said.
The governor hopeful said that having served as a trustee for Reach Out Drug Rehabilitation Centre, he has a better grasp of the issues around tackling the drug menace.
He told residents that he was in a good position to make a difference “having gained a deep understanding of what needs to be done to address the drug menace in Mombasa.”
In an earlier survey by the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Nacada), it was revealed that more than 34 per cent of the residents in Mombasa have ever used at least one substance of abuse.