Murang’a: A rehabilitation centre focusing on skills offers a new path out of addiction in Murang’a, specifically in the Makuyu shopping centre. Away from the major highway’s bustle and urban pressures, a quiet but meaningful change is unfolding in the fight against alcoholism and drug abuse.
According to Kenya News Agency, the Ark Star of Hope, a newly established rehabilitation centre, is challenging the traditional approach to addiction treatment. Rather than solely concentrating on detoxification and counselling, the facility has adopted a skills-first recovery model. This combines therapy with practical vocational training aimed at helping recovering addicts earn a living once they leave the centre.
Ms Martha Njeri, the centre’s director, explains that sobriety is harder to maintain when individuals return to the same hopeless conditions that led them into addiction. Unemployment, idleness, and unresolved mental health struggles often loom on the other side of rehabilitation, undoing months of progress. Njeri highlights that many relapses occur not because treatment failed, but due to the overwhelming nature of life post-treatment. She emphasizes that skills create purpose, and purpose sustains recovery.
At Ark Star of Hope, recovery is intertwined with learning. Beneficiaries are trained in various practical, income-generating activities such as agribusiness, poultry keeping, welding, detergent making, basic plumbing, and beauty therapy. These programs are delivered by qualified professionals, ensuring that trainees acquire hands-on skills they can immediately apply in the real world.
Njeri notes that the centre’s model was shaped by years of engagement with technical training institutions across the Mt Kenya region. During this time, she encountered many students and professionals silently battling addiction, often afraid to seek help due to stigma. Addiction, she remarks, does not discriminate, affecting the educated and uneducated, the rich and poor. The difference lies in who has access to help.
According to the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA), an estimated 4.7 million Kenyans aged between 15 and 65 use at least one drug or substance, with alcohol being the most widely abused. Despite the scale of the problem, Kenya has just over 230 registered treatment and rehabilitation centres across 36 counties, leaving many communities without adequate access to care, especially post-recovery support.
Njeri argues that without sustainable reintegration strategies, rehabilitation efforts risk becoming short-term fixes to long-term problems. She observes that the skills-first approach is already beginning to bear fruit, with recovering addicts rediscovering their confidence, learning trades, and envisioning a future beyond dependency.
As communities across Murang’a continue to grapple with the social and economic costs of addiction, the model piloted at Ark Star of Hope is drawing attention as a more human and sustainable path to recovery. It measures success not only in months of sobriety but in renewed livelihoods, restored self-worth, and meaningful reintegration into society.
Government officials acknowledge the growing challenge and welcome community-driven initiatives like the one in Makuyu. Public Health Principal Secretary Mary Muthoni recently warned that substance abuse remains a serious national concern, with worrying trends emerging among women and young people. She cited a rise in nicotine and shisha use among women, noting that the government is stepping up prevention and treatment efforts. Plans are underway to establish a regional recovery centre in Nanyuki to serve the wider Mt Kenya region, alongside expanded public education campaigns on the dangers of drug and substance abuse.
