Why 30-year-old Bahati man is embarking on a Sh 1.3 million walk to Nairobi

When Joseph Karanja sets off from Kunste Hotel in Nakuru on 9 November, he will be having more than a walk. He will be carrying eleven years of sobriety, four attacks of tuberculosis, and the memory of a young boy he once watched being handed a cup of chang'aa by his own father.

Karanja, a resident of Bahati and director of MK Foundation, plans to walk 160 kilometers to Nairobi over four days to amplify a national conversation about alcohol and drug addiction. The route breaks into 40 kilometers to Gilgil on day one and ends at Uhuru Park or KICC In Nairobi.

"This is a village boy going to the capital city to address the nation. This is a long overdue conversation that needs to be amplified and given national attention because hundreds are dying from illicit brew," he says.

The 43-year-old speaks as a recovering addict. He started drinking in Class Five, in 1994, in Bahati, not beer, but the deadly illicit brews, and cigarettes alongside them. He notes that by the time he sat his class eight exams he was already dependent on tobacco.

For 15 years alcohol pulled him under three separate times. The last and worst was driven by an illness he did not understand. A persistent irritation he could silence with a cup of chang'aa each morning. For a year he treated undiagnosed tuberculosis with alcohol.

“I contracted TB four times in total and at my lowest I weighed 39 kilograms. My family had to step in and get me to seek medical attention. Today I am also a TB champion, and because these two campaigns cannot be separated,” he notes

What pushed him toward the walk was not only his own story. It was the story of a boy he met in a drinking den, the same child whose father used to bring him along years earlier, before dying of alcohol-related illness. The boy is now grown, and now an addict himself.

 "How many people must die for this to be taken as a national crisis?" Karanja asks.

His appeal to the government is to provide what he calls friendly centers, free, walk-in spaces with counsellors, games, a computer, somewhere a person can simply arrive and be received. He wants at least two in every ward, funded by the county government from the percentage of the liquor licensing revenue the county already collects.

“This could be built on public land or at health facilities. Unlike rehab, which is expensive and frightening to most addicts, a friendly center needs only for the addicts to walk in. I am a product of one, a youth-friendly center in Bahati where I discovered my talent and transformed my life 11 years ago. “he notes.

Karanja has been training for a month, starting at 11 kilometers walks and building toward 40 km in different terrains. The walk will cost an estimated Sh 1.3 million and involves a team of 30, an ambulance and a truck fitted with a public address system. He will also launch his second book, Picking Up the Pieces in Nairobi after finishing the walk.

Karanja's coach, Josphine Ng'ang'a notes that she is keen on advising him on meals he is taking as he undergoes the three months training before embarking on his journey.

" We are monitoring his walks as he trains, ensuring he hydrates enough and gradually increases the distance he covers each day. We want to ensure that despite the news on El-Nino rains he will achieve his target and do it without any medical complications by the end of it. We invite people to participate and join him on the walk," she says

"This is not political; we welcome everyone to support the course as we fight drug abuse and addiction in our communities. We are also planning to raise money to be able to run more campaigns against illicit brew in other counties because these vices are cutting across everybody," he concludes.

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