Awareness And Knowledge Of Drug And Substance Use Among 18-24 Year-old Female Adolesents
[A CASE STUDY OF SOWETO - KAYOLE]

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Substance use among young people keeps on being a developing concern comprehensively and in this setting, extensive variety in the pervasiveness of legitimate and unlawful substance use among youths exists between nations (Bachman, 2000: 135); and keeping in mind that medication use among teenagers has a tendency to be higher among young people from the more created nations (Ubom, 2004), absence of strong information from the less created nations makes examinations troublesome.

Regardless of, the techniques which have been set up by the Government of Kenya through the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, and other law requirement organizations, for example, Police, Provincial Administration and NACADA gathering, the part of medication and substance utilize is as yet a heightening issue in the Kenya society particularly among the young (Johnston, 2000). Several strategies have been put in place to address the problem but have not yielded good

results. The trend shows continuous increase of drug use among school going youth. Regrettably, scientists have shown that utilization of medications by school going youth diminishes their scholastic execution, brings down their Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and makes them helpless against wrongdoing. Medication mishandle likewise opens them to wellbeing dangers among other bunch issues (Boyd, 2005; NACADA, 2007; Nyassy, 2010).

The issue of medication and substance use is a big threat to the Kenyan society (Nyassy, 2010). Crime rate, which is directly related to drug abuse, has escalated to levels that are very disturbing. We have witnessed numerous behavior disorders and social maladjustments among the youth. Beastly acts such as rape of old women and minors, and grisly murder of innocent people are increasing day by day. The culprits of these criminal acts turn out to be very young people who have just left secondary school while others still in school.

Among the drug users are female adolescence at their tender age of 18 to 24 years of age. They use drugs and other substances, and this affects them psychologically and socially. Many have dropped out of school and they turn out to be delinquents and join street life. Most of these adolescents end up in psychiatric wards because they show signs of mental disorders (Nyassy, 2010). However, drug addiction has not been studied in Kenya to show the specific addiction signs that female adolescents have. In developed countries such as United States, England and Australia, researchers have shown that drug and substance use problem has been identified among adolescents and is associated with certain behavior disorders that they show. No such identification has been done in the Kenyan context before.

Statistics indicate that 27.7% of students in learning institutions and 77.1% of non-students’ youth in Kenya are large term abusers of substances. Overall, the proportion of non-student youth reported to be on bhang, Khat (Miraa) and inhalants is 34.9%, 55.1% and 22.5% respectively. These indications are scary given that Kenya is a 21st century member of the International Community and Drug and Substance Abuse (ICDS) contributing to the global problem (Mwenesi, 1996).

While recent research studies on drug abuse in Kenya have paid key attention to Mombasa City, little seems to have been done in Nairobi. Yet, Nairobi is the country‘s capital city expected to host more youth and other vulnerable groups like street children. Equally, little attention has been given to the role played by substance use especially in the wake of secondary school unrest like strikes. The issue of substance use among female adolescents has therefore been left to the few trained counselling individuals who may not be adequately equipped with the expertise needed to deal with cases of drug use and addiction, especially the hard drugs like heroin and cocaine (Republic of Kenya, 2002).

In Nairobi, just like in other cities in Africa, the risk age of drug use has gone down to twelve years from previous seventeen years. This is posing a serious challenge to anti-drugs user crusaders and the government (Republic of Kenya, 2006). In some instances, the teenagers have even become victims of senseless drug traffickers who are out to recruit them into drug addiction at whatever cost. However, unlike HIV and AIDS around which the silence has been broken and declared a national disaster, drugs and substance abuse are still in the illegal and silent realm, and hence a lot of apprehension even in talking about them (Republic of Kenya, 2006).

The need to invest in preventive strategies has therefore been noted, rather than the then prevailing curative approach whose impact was hardly felt. In addition, data on the trends of substance abuse and outcomes of addiction among young people remain largely undocumented in Kenya. There is therefore need to seek for resources to contribute to this knowledge gap, through focusing on establishing the situation of substance use among female adolescents. This research will therefore be called for to contribute towards building effective capacity towards educating and intervene on the incidence and extent of substance abuse among female adolescents.

1.3 Research Questions

i. What are the various substances commonly used by female adolescents in Soweto-Kayole?

ii. What is the extent of substance used be female adolescents in Soweto-Kayole?

iii. What are the female adolescents’ behaviors related to substance use in Soweto-Kayole?

iv. What are the factors that contribute to substance use by female adolescents in Soweto- Kayole?