Community Intervention Strategies to Youth Alcoholism: A Case of Kinyago Village, Gatundu District, Kenya.

Abstract

The intensity of alcohol abuse in Kenya has been a major concern in recent years, more so affecting the youth. Alcoholism continues to affect many families in Kenya usually leaving entire families deeply divided. In many parts of central Kenya, alcoholism has been blamed on the decreasing birth rates. It is therefore evident that if this problem is not checked, the entire society will crumble. This study focused on the youth aged between ages 15-25 years and was carried out in Kinyago Village, Gatundu District, where the problem of youth alcoholism was noted as highly prevalent. The study set out to find out the extent to which alcoholism affects the productivity of the youth, and to understand how the youth cope with the challenges of alcoholism in Kinyago village, Gatundu District. Survey research design was used in this study. Simple random sampling was used to gather a total of 140 respondents. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from the youth and unstructured interviews collected data from the key informants. The raw data collected were processed using the SPSS statistical package; both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Results indicated that the community and government were making attempts in mitigating the effects of alcoholism among the youth. Some of the methods used to curb youth alcoholism include police raids (21%), parents’ talks (16%), Youth fund (14%), chiefs’ barazas 13%, and games tournaments (5%) among others.