Western Kenya region leads in the consumption of popular home brewed spirit Changaa and its beer counterpart busaa. This is according to a report released by National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA)

The report shows that Changaa consumption is most prevalent in the former Western province (11.4) followed by Nyanza (6.3) as Rift Valley takes third position with a 3.6% prevalence.

Chang’aa is a traditional brew manufactured locally through simple distillation of fermented cereals. On the other hand Busaa is prepared by fermenting cereals but consumed without being distilled.

Traditional beer prevalence also places Western Province in the forefront by 12.9% prevalence followed by coast  at 7.7% and Nyanza comes in third position with a 2.2% prevalence.

NACADA also examined the prevalence of current use of at least one substance of abuse, where the Western region also turned out to be leading at 26.4 per cent.

As for Central Kenya, the most abused drug is portable spirits while in Nairobi legal alcohol is the most abused drug.

On overall in Kenya, alcohol was found to be the most abused drug in Kenya, with 3,199,119 of the population affected, followed by Tobacco and Khat at 2,305,929 and a 964,737 affected people respectively.

Cannabis abuse meanwhile affects 518,807 people while prescription drugs affect 60,407 people across the country.

“The situation has been made worse due to the growing problem of drug abuse in our schools. The most abused drug in Kenya is alcohol followed by tobacco, khat, cannabis, prescription drugs, heroin and cocaine,” the report said.