Muguka, idleness and a better way to spend an afternoon

Drive through Kajiado today and you will see muguka farms where there used to be maize and beans. Muguka, a variety of khat, is a fast and profitable crop, and it is now easy and cheap to buy in almost every trading centre in the county.

For a young person with no job, no money and nowhere to go, a bundle of muguka is the easiest way to pass a day. You will find them in groups by the roadside and outside the shops, chewing from late morning into the night. Not because they are bad people, but because there is nothing else to do. Often the chewing leads on to alcohol, and alcohol to worse.

Idleness is the real problem

Muguka fills empty hours. It keeps people up, keeps them talking, and keeps them in one place for a long time. But it also eats the little money a young person earns, ruins sleep, hurts appetite and health, and slowly takes away the energy and ambition they need to build a life. Families feel it. Whole villages feel it.

Lecturing young people about drugs does not work if we offer them nothing in place of the habit. You cannot ask someone to give up the only thing that fills their afternoon unless you give them a better afternoon.

“You cannot ask someone to give up the only thing that fills their afternoon unless you give them a better afternoon.”

Pool as the better afternoon

Pool needs a steady hand, a clear head and a sharp eye. Players who want to win learn very quickly that you cannot chew all day, drink all night and still clear a table under pressure. The game itself rewards discipline.

Our tournaments give young people a reason to practise, a date to prepare for, a ranking on this website to protect and prize money worth competing for. They meet older players, sponsors and mentors who show them that there is more to life than the roadside.

Why the tables must leave the bars

There is a catch. Today most pool tables in our villages sit inside bars, so even a young person who comes to play is surrounded by alcohol. We run our tournaments in the venues we have, but we know that is not good enough for the long run.

That is why the next step for Moran Pool Club is a youth space: a safe, alcohol-free, drug-free place in the village where young people can play pool, table tennis and board games, study, and meet mentors. A place where the healthy choice is also the easy one.