A Milestone for Public Health and Youth Protection After Comprehensive Consultative Process
In June 2025, the Kenyan Cabinet officially adopted the “National Policy on the Prevention of Alcohol, Drugs, and Substance Use (2025)”, marking a historic turning point in the country’s efforts to protect people’s health and address a growing national crisis. This milestone policy establishes a comprehensive, multi-sectoral framework aimed at preventing and reducing harm due to alcohol and other drugs, especially among young people.
The policy’s development followed a nationwide consultation led by the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) with support from both national and county governments. As reported by Kenya News Agency, forums across counties like Uasin Gishu engaged community leaders, youth representatives, local officials, and professionals in prevention and rehabilitation.
Movendi International members were at the forefront of engaging and mobilizing local communities in this comprehensive consultation process. This process united diverse stakeholders behind a shared vision and ensured the policy was shaped by those most affected. The interactive and consultative development process was supported by the RESET Alcohol Initiative.
NACADA Chair Rev. Stephen Mairori stressed the urgency of addressing alcohol and other drugs harms and highlighted the policy’s role in guiding local legislation. Elders, youth leaders, and government officials called for more comprehensice protections, better enforcement, and more ambitious prevention measures in schools, universities, and communities across the country.
A Long and Challenging Road
The National Alcohol and Other Drugs Policy has been under discussion since at least 2007. However, as highlighted by news media reporting, for example in the opinion piece by The East African Standard in 2007, alcohol industry interference repeatedly derailed progress.
For years, alcohol industry lobbying stalled the development and implementation of effective policy solutions.
Big Alcohol has its sights set on the African region, and especially countries like Kenya, to maximize their profits in the years to come. Africa provides a lucrative opportunity for the alcohol industry with inadequate or wholly absent alcohol policy frameworks, a growing young urban middle class, and a growing labor force.
As beer demand declines in Western countries, Kenya and other African nations are the alcohol industry’s plan for maximizing profits in the future. That is why they deploy aggressive lobbying campaigns to delay and derail alcohol policy initiatives. The Big Alcohol Exposed Initiative has documented nearly thirty case examples of alcohol industry lobbying against public health policy and other misconduct examples in Kenya alone, since 2017.
The newly adopted framework now breaks through this barrier, prioritising people’s wellbeing, national development, and youth prevention efforts over private profit interests of the alcohol industry.
Protecting Youth and Other Vulnerable Groups
Data from NACADA shows the urgency of the situation. More than 50% of people using drugs in Kenya are between the ages of 10 and 19, according to NACADA statistics cited by The Star. A separate 2024 report by NACADA revealed that 45.6% of university students have used at least one substance in their lifetime, while 26.6% are currently using substances such as alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, khat, and synthetic drugs, such as methamphetamine and codeine syrup.
The Global Burden of Disease study shows that Kenya is facing a growing burden of years of life lost due to alcohol since the 1990s. Kenya also faces a growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, heart disease and mental health conditions due to alcohol. These escalating problems are placing a growing strain on the healthcare system and undermine economic productivity and prosperity of Kenyan society.
Leveling Up Alcohol Policy, Strengthening NACADA and Coordinated Action
To address these realities, the new policy enhances protection for Kenyans under the age of 21 and supports people who do not want to use alcohol and other drugs. It also establishes guidelines to prohibit alcohol sales near schools and places of worship. And the new national policy brings in a ban on advertising targeting young people or glamorising alcohol use.
The Kenyan government under President Ruto has attempted to protect youth from wide alcohol availability for years. For example in 2023, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua released instructions for county administrations to issue only one licence for one bar and restaurant per town. The guidance was part of the government’s accelerated efforts to address the rising alcohol harm in Kenya. The move aimed at placing common sense limits on alcohol availability in cities and towns across Kenya.
As detailed in Cabinet News, the policy significantly expands the mandate of NACADA. The agency will lead coordinated efforts across sectors, enforce drug control laws, and guide national strategies for public education, evidence-based prevention, and rehabilitation.
Plans are underway to establish a government-supported rehabilitation centre in every county to support people with alcohol use disorder and other substance-related health needs.
Community Involvement and Cultural Leadership
The national policy recognises that effective alcohol prevention must include the voices and leadership of communities. According to the Kenya News Agency, stakeholders at the Uasin Gishu consultation emphasised the need for collaboration with religious leaders, the council of elders, youth groups, and local professionals.
For instance, Rtd Maj John Seii, chair of the National Council of Elders, described the alcohol burden as a threat to Kenya’s future workforce and called for collective action towards a “sober nation.” Local youth leaders, including Collins Kemboi, advocated for banning alcohol sales in higher education institutions and expanding support for treatment services.
One of the leading civil society organisations to engage in the process and to advocate for the policy for many years is SCAD, the Students Campaign Against Drugs, a member organisation of Movendi International.
SCAD works with health and mental health promotion through school- and university-based programs and student- as well as teacher-led initiatives. They are also a leading advocacy voice for evidence-based alcohol policy solutions.
Benjamin Odhiambo, project officer at (SCAD), shared his reaction in a message to Movendi International:
For us as SCAD this is a powerful moment. After several false starts and policy drafts that faded into thin air, often without explanation. We now have a policy in place. It is a shift, in government attitude who regard this as a national threat to security; and in the level of engagement across the board. From non-state actors who stayed the course through the technical working groups, to NACADA who led and believed in the process, legal drafters, and finally cabinet – this adoption reflects collective commitment.”
Benjamin Odhiambo, project officer, Students Campaign Against Drugs
Mr Odhiambo speaks of new optimism thanks to the groundbreaking adoption of the “National Policy on the Prevention of Alcohol, Drugs, and Substance Use” but SCAD has seen how alcohol industry interference has undermined other public health policy wins before.
Only clear strategies to guard against industry interference can saffeguard this from being undermined. And we speak from experience,” writes Benjamin Odhiambo to Movendi International.
Last year, after the successful push for higher taxes on wines and spirits, alcohol companies absorbed price increases and doubled down on promotion – fuelling even more heavy alcohol consumption. While we celebrated nationally, they were securing more favourable tax and trade conditions regionally through the East African Community mechanism. We must be vigilant. Progress, yes. But it must be protected from existing threats.”
Benjamin Odhiambo, project officer, Students Campaign Against Drugs
SCAD is optimistic and sees the potential of the new policy as an opportunity to truly redefine what it means to protect children and youth in Kenya.
My Odhiambo says:
For far too long, we’ve relied on frameworks that barely acknowledged the lived realities of our children – where they grow up, how they learn, how vulnerable they are at different stages of development, the impact of interaction of alcohol and other drugs with their development, and just how early exposure to harmful substances is becoming normalised and glamorised – especially by Western-owned alcohol companies.
The policy allows us to change that narrative, based on our national realities and even set a regional precedent. With the right measures to limit alcohol marketing and availability, and to reduce alcohol affordability, we can create environments that promote resilience, not risk.
If these measures are integrated into law, we can expect more supportive ecosystems for young people, strengthening their wellbeing now and into the future. We often speak about future-proof health policies for young people. We just took a step towards that.”
Benjamin Odhiambo, project officer, Students Campaign Against Drugs
One curious element of the process is that the actual and final text and key provisions of the National Policy on the Prevention of Alcohol, Drugs, and Substance Use is not yet publicly available. Therefore SCAD hopes that alcohol industry interference was avoided and that the final policy contains all the evidence-based measures that civil society, communities, young people, academia and others were advocating for throughout the consultation process.
Asked about the immediate hopes of young people now that the cabinet adopted the policy, Mr Odhiambo says:
The first step is to review the approved document line by line to ensure the final policy still reflects the bold proposals that anchored it in human rights and child protection from the start. We must confirm that the safeguards for children, youth, women, and other vulnerable populations have not been diluted in the final version.
We also need to cooperate with the implementing agency to explore how best to attain full policy implementation and guardrails.
From there, civil society needs to get moving actively monitoring implementation, holding government departments accountable, and advocating for the necessary legislative changes that will make the policy live and breathe. Because the policy is just the start.
And throughout it all, we must stay alert. More than any other time. The alcohol and other health harming industries are going sitting back. They will lobby and interfere as we know they always do, especially when legislation is on the table. We won this round. But the struggle is far from over.”
Benjamin Odhiambo, project officer, Students Campaign Against Drugs
A Path Forward
The historic adoption of this new alcohol and other drugs prevention policy closes a decades-long gap in Kenya’s health promotion efforts. For example, according to the Kenya News Agency, the new law sets clear national standards and enforcement priorities and reflects the 25 national resolutions approved under the Deputy President’s leadership. These measures apply uniformly across all counties and outlets.
This comprehensive, prevention-first policy sets a new standard for alcohol and other drug policy in Africa. It affirms that the government has the responsibility to protect people’s health and invest in evidence-based solutions that benefit the nation as a whole.
Sources
The Star (Kenya): “Cabinet adopts policy to curb alcohol and drug abuse among youth“
NACADA Kenya (X/Twitter): “Policy announcement on youth substance abuse“
Kenya News Agency: “Stakeholders give views on National Policy for Alcohol and Drug Abuse“
AllAfrica: “Kenya: Time is Ripe for a National Alcohol Policy“