Chief Justice David Maraga has advised the youth addicted to drugs to seek divine attention and expert help.
While launching the Drug Awareness Campaign on Saturday at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Maraga confessed that 20 years of his life were wasted as he wallowed in alcoholism.
“I was baptised on October 30, 1965, when I was still in primary school but I got into bad company in high school. I started drinking even on credit,” Maraga said.
The CJ said he was still a drunkard throughout his undergraduate programme and a great part of his legal career.
Having gone back for his master’s degree 34 years after his undergraduate, Maraga slowed down ambitions to alcoholism. He is now a staunch Seventh Day Adventist.
“For more than 20 years, I mark-timed except in providing basic necessities. I would go home at 3am and ask for dinner. My wife would ask me if it was really dinner or breakfast I was asking for. I would not have been Chief Justice if I had not given my life to Jesus Christ,” he said.
Attributing the erosion of societal values to the love for money, Maraga urged university students to be alert in the fight against drug abuse as the society currently accommodates drugs traffickers who easily access drugs.
“For the love of money, the drug barons are availing the drugs to the society and as a result, drug abuse is among the key challenges in the country,” he said.
It is consuming young people and destroying families, especially the youth between 25 and 35 years who are in their prime and could be relied upon to secure the country’s socioeconomic prosperity.
CJ David Maraga
The chief justice decried that in spite of the existing legislation geared towards curbing drug trafficking in the country, the menace is still appreciating.
In his speech, Maraga revealed the consequences of drug and substance abuse among the youth.
These include diminishing academic performance and suicidal tendencies, material deprivation in families and unemployment, poverty and emotional and psychological breakdown.
Maraga, therefore, called on the public to “unite and help drug addicts who need societal love and support in order to successfully detach from addiction”.
He also urged students to preserve their esteemed status of being university students and be role models to other youths.