The Effects of Drug and Substance Abuse among Youth in Kapsowar Town, Kenya: Implications for Family, Social, and Community Well-Being

Abstract

This study examined the effects of drug and substance abuse among youth in Kapsowar Town, Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya, with particular attention to implications for family, social, and community well-being. The study foregrounds the social problem of drug and substance abuse among youth, which presents interconnected health, social, family, economic, moral, and spiritual challenges. Despite this, national prevalence data do not adequately explain how these consequences are experienced within specific local communities. Using a case study design, the study employed a qualitative approach. Data were obtained from eight clergy and forty church youth leaders purposively selected from eight participating congregations in Kapsowar Town. The study treated these participants as key informants whose pastoral and youth-leadership experiences provided contextual accounts of the phenomenon. The study identified five consolidated themes: crime and community insecurity; health and psychological harm; expansion of the local substance-abuse market; household poverty and reduced economic participation; and disruption of parental, pastoral, moral, and family relationships. Interpreted through the Pastoral Cycle. The study findings indicate that substance abuse is concurrently an individual, relational, family, and community concern requiring coordinated pastoral, family, governmental, and community responses. The study recommends the need for interventions that combine prevention, counselling, rehabilitation, family support, and collaboration between churches and relevant public and community institutions. It contributes a context-specific pastoral interpretation of youth substance abuse.