Alcohol is addictive and can be destructive if not kept in check, no wonder some celebrities made the wise decision to steer clear of booze in 2023.
A handful of Kenyan celebrities in 2023 transitioned from guzzling liquor to embracing life as teetotallers.
Below is the list of celebs who now pussyfoot around alcohol.
Janet Mbugua
Janet Mbugua is proud to be sober and is taking one step at a time to maintain the course in her sobriety journey.
In September 2023, the media personality opened up about her decision to be a teetotaller while speaking during an interview on her YouTube channel.
The mother of two said that she has been sober for close to two years, noting that she did not regret the decision to cut out alcohol from her life.
Mbugua, however, noted she did not rule out going back to drinking in a year or two, stressing that she has not put any pressure on herself.
“I don’t drink, I haven’t had a drink… December this year will be two years since I had a drink. But on the offset, it is just something that I felt it was the right decision to make for myself and it is a kind of thing where I could go back to it tomorrow, or in a year or 10 years or never. I am not putting any pressure on myself,” Janet Mbugua said.
She added that; “But do you know what is really interesting? Is even when you make a decision like that can be hard Like everything has a hard. Choose your hard.”
The mother of two admitted that it was not an easy decision for her to quit drinking, noting that discipline was key in her steering clear of that tempting bottle of booze.
“The life I’ve lived this far I feel like I have made decisions where I can compare what was life with that decision and life without it. Because at the end of the day when you try to build discipline it is hard, it doesn’t come naturally to us, to people. You want things that come easy to you,” she said.
She further advised people not to tempt those who are trying to quit drinking by offering them alcohol in small quantities.
She noted that folks trying to stop drinking liquor could be preventing themselves from slipping into alcoholism and other vices.
“By the way people who are not drinking, people who say they are sober or celibate or clean please stop asking them, there are some people who will ask somebody who has stopped drinking ‘ah nini si you get one drink’. You never know what they are trying to do to stop themselves from spiralling. So let them be. It’s not a flex, me sitting here saying ‘I don’t drink’ it not a flex. It is just a reality that I have to choose for myself. That was my heart. It is a sacrifice towards a certain goal and towards a certain personality,” she said.
Murugi Munyi
In November 2023, Content creator Murugi Munyi announced she had quit drinking alcohol.
The mother of three revealed she had chosen to avoid booze at all costs after a near-death experience that left her shaken.
“Where am I right now? Wrong answers only,” Murugi teased her fans.
A fan replied “Kwa bar” adding the beer glass emoji.
Murugi denied it saying she had made a conscious decision to choose an alcohol-free lifestyle.
“I told you people mi nimeacha hiyo maisha for real for real. The way I almost died last weekend? ah ha,” she explained.
Netizens implored Murugi to open up after she mentioned the near-death experience.
“Heh For real. Some people just wake up and decide to quit like Lydia Kim, but I had to go through this experience to learn my lesson,” Murugi shared.
Other fans were amused at her decision and sent her memes about not really quitting alcohol but sipping once in a while.
“For some reason, you people don’t believe me, but let me tell you guys… What I went through last week, even the word ALCOHOL is making me want to throw up,” she insisted.
Murugi further urged her fans to stop teasing her about her decision to quit alcohol.
“But wait when it has been one year, like next year November, when it’s a year and I can say I stopped alcohol after my near-death experience, I don’t think you people understand how I was feeling last week Saturday,” she added.
The content creator spoke about her alcohol addiction in a past interview with Lynn Ngugi.
She revealed that alcoholism ran deep within her family.
“My dad, despite being financially present, was absent both physically and emotionally due to his own battles with alcoholism. Now, my sister has been wrestling with addiction for a decade. It has been a tumultuous journey for her and our family,” she said.
Omosh
Veteran actor Joseph Kinuthia alias Omosh struggled with alcoholism for years but in August 2023 he asserted that he had ultimately crossed the Red Sea and left his alcohol addiction in Egypt.
Omosh said that after struggling for years to stop drinking in vain, he sought divine intervention and God ultimately helped him to overcome the alcohol addiction.
“Nimekua mitini. After nime make decision ya kuchange my life, kuturn my life around. Kuturn my life around nilihitaji kulilia God na God akaniturn around. Na God kuniturn around nkasema I have to start things afresh so pale ndo nkaenda factory setting ya life yangu,” Omosh said in an interview with YouTuber Nicholas Kioko.
He further explained that he decided to embrace sobriety because of the adverse effects alcohol had on his life.
The actor noted that he had been enslaved by alcohol which had also made him violent.
“Mimi nikikuja kuacha tei ilikua mimi nimejaribu kuacha tei so many times. Mimi ni mtu nkishakunywa tei ata home mimi nimuviolent. Ilikua inani affect in all angles. Kejani siko mtu poa, nkienda physically bado siko fiti. Ilikua isha nienslave, nlikua slave wa tei.”
Omosh said his turning point came after witnessing the deaths of his two friends who used to drink with him.
Eric Omondi
In July 2023, Eric Omondi revealed that he had not tasted alcohol on his tongue for seven years.
Speaking during an interview with a local news outlet, the comedian explained that he quit drinking because getting drunk and misbehaving afterwards affected his image.
According to Eric, taking alcohol made him look older and skinnier.
He also explained that his drinking habit reached a point where it started affecting his memory, hence forgetting his content while performing.
“I don’t drink alcohol now for like seven years. I used to drink a lot, but I became so thin that I could not perform, and I also noticed that I would forget some jokes. I looked very old, so I decided to just quit it,” Eric Omondi explained.
Chebet Ronoh
Content creator Chebet Ronoh struggled with alcoholism and was twice admitted to a rehabilitation facility before she ultimately got sober.
Ronoh opened up about her struggle with alcoholism in a video she posted on her Instagram account on July 25, 2023.
The content creator noted that alcohol had taken a toll on her physical and mental health.
“Alcohol has put me in rehab twice, it has put me in the hospital a couple of times so that I could literally function,” she shared.
Ronoh stated that her turning point came when doctors warned her that continued drinking of liquor would have a devastating effect on her liver which was already failing.
“I began experiencing downside effects of my health, from my eyes to my liver, my doctor looked at me and asked me ‘Is this something you really want to continue?” She said.
This wake-up call led her to embark on a journey to recovery from alcohol addiction.
As of July 25, 2023, when she shared her story about fighting alcoholism, Chebet Ronoh had been sober for 19 days.
“I have made the choice to be sober for at least 90 days, and hopefully, for many years. I am currently 19 days sober, and it’s crazy, this thing used to be my syrup,” she expressed with enthusiasm.
