HE'D been addicted to drugs and alcohol for 22 years, depending daily on doses of cocaine, marijuana and heroin. To survive, Kenyan John Mugenda, 44, resorted to drastic measures.

"I sold my father's $8 million estate inheritance. I had so many friends because I had money [at that time]."

Mugenda said he couldn't cope with his wealthy status and turned to drugs and a promiscuous lifestyle for solace. The money soon ran out and in the process he said he became so poor that he even started mugging people to feed his habit.

Today Mugenda is clean and holds down a regular job. His turnaround came after being rehabilitated at a Chinese funded New Life Home in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

Multi-addiction

With more than 4.3 million drug addicts needing rehabilitation in Kenya, China has invested over $400 million to construct 40 additional drug rehabilitation centers in the country, according to the Kenya's National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA), a government agency. Construction of the 40 centers is expected to begin in early August.

According to NACADA's recently appointed chairman, Julius Githiri, the situation is dire, especially in the Kenyan coastal region.

"This figure [of drug addicts] represents mainly the youth, especially people under the age of 35," he said adding that China's help is invaluable.

"The most abused drugs include heroin, cocaine, morphine, illegally brewed alcohol and opium," said Githiri. Kenya is ranked high in terms of drug abuse, along with its West African counterparts. Equatorial Guinea, Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, and Cote d'Ivoire have similar problems.

NACADA has also said that Kenya is a trafficking hub due to its geographic location rather than a consumer country, pointing out however that the country is increasingly becoming more of an end-user.

According to Professor Germano Mwabu, a World Bank consultant economist, drug abuse costs the Kenyan economy $11.8 billion per year in terms of labor lost.

"This is not a small figure and it is serious. This money can go into creating more employment. It is just lost down the drain. This is how much profit is lost to companies not including the revenue," said Professor Mwabu.

Monitoring drug trafficking also has its challenges. According to Sergeant John Omondi, Spokesperson of Anti-Narcotics Police Unit at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, the situation is dire. He said every month an average of 100 arrests are made involving drug trafficking.

"About 5 tons of illegal drugs are trafficked across our airports and seaports almost on a monthly basis," he said, adding that the biggest drug consignments are heroin and cocaine.

Timely intervention

According to Omondi, the Chinese initiative is coming at the right time when lives need to be saved.

"We do work closely with the Chinese Government not just in helping addicts get treated, but also in extraditing fugitive Kenyan criminals hiding in that country. We have a bilateral extradition agreement with China," Omondi told ChinAfrica.

At the Chinese funded Homelove Center in southern part of Nairobi, psychiatrist Mutiso Mutuva said the center receives more than 30 addicts per month from all corners of the country.

"For drug addicts to recover, they have to be willing to be treated for an average of three months in rehabilitation. We then provide them with medicines to help them kick their habit," said the counselor. "We additionally provide them with counseling and obviously shelter. They cannot leave until three months are over."

She added that on average, 78 percent of the addicts recover and give up drugs. Funding is also used to help treat liver diseases associated with drug and alcohol abuse. According to her, the drugs to manage diseases like liver cirrhosis are very expensive.

Mutuva said in addition, Chinese funds are used to purchase laboratory equipment.

Large numbers

"Even before we built the facilities in partnership with China, more than $200 million had been channeled to NACADA by China to rehabilitate addicts in our already existing centers," said Githiri.

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, more than 5,200 people die each year in Kenya of drug related conditions such as overdose and liver cirrhosis.

However, figures show that people have turned up in larger numbers to rehabilitation centers than ever before between January last year and the past June. "I can't give you accurate figures but they are between 15,000 to 20,000 per year. That is how serious the problem is," Dr. Zachary Mwangi, Director of the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, told ChinAfrica. "Chinese funds are helping a great deal."

China has also been supplying equipment to the Kenya anti-narcotics police units to pursue drug traffickers, said Jochim Otieno of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Kenya Police Service.

According to records from the Kenya's National Treasury, China has donated more than $83 million this year to equip the Kenyan police.

These funds are to build forensic labs to identify illegal drugs, and to buy and train sniffer dogs, cars, weapons and radar equipment to monitor criminals at points of entry.

Guo Hong, head of the Confucius Institute in the University of Nairobi, said that not only is the relationship between Kenya and China strong, but they have decided to look at security concerns that have been blamed on drugs.

"There are many hotels along the Kenyan coastal areas [and they are the places] where drug addiction is a problem," she said, adding that the institute has built four rehabilitation centers in Nairobi and Mombasa with the help of the Chinese Embassy.

Her thoughts were echoed by Xu Jing of the institute.

"As a human being, I feel very sad when I see people waste themselves with drugs. So we fund existing centers where they rehabilitate those who cannot afford $300 per month for a duration of three months," said Xu, adding that his institute has helped 89 people out of addiction since 2013 and secured jobs for them.

According to Xu, after rehabilitation, they are then provided with free vocational training for different jobs such as arts, carpentry and sports. After training, the rehabilitatees are awarded certificates to help them secure employment.

"We even refer them to Chinese companies and institutions for further opportunities," she said.

The institute also allocated funds to help university students affected by drugs and further collaborate with the Kenyan Government on cost sharing of rehabilitation needs.

(Reporting from Kenya)