Abstract:

American Psychological Association defines alcoholism as:-

“an illness characterized by preoccupation with alcohol and loss of control over its consumption such as to lead to usually to intoxication if drinking is begun; by chronic to intoxication if drinking is begun; by chronicity, progression; and by tendency towards relapse” (Hoffman, 1975).

The aim of the study was to explore the experiences of mothers losing biological sons to death through alcoholism in njatha-ini village sagana - kirinyaga west county, Kenya. The target population was mothers with adult sons that have died through alcoholism. in Njatha-ini village Sagana area – Kirinyaga County. The study design was qualitative and non-probability design was used utilizing snow-balling sampling. According to Orodho and Kombo (2002) sampling is the procedure a researcher uses to gather people, places and things to study. It is a set of respondents from a larger population for the purpose of a study. Seven mothers from the Ndia ethnic community located in Njatha-Ini Village, Kirinyaga West County in Kenya, were interviewed through the Focus group discussion. A chunk of written notes audio taped were then transcribed, read and re-read then grouped items together. The information was placed into emerging themes; responses coded and conceptualized, attributed and searched for meanings from the data segmentation.

The mothers bio-data was based on four key descriptions, the age of the mothers, age of sons at time of dying, duration since the death of the son and the circumstances under which the son died through alcoholism. The mothers aged between 52 and 78 years old, the dying sons aged between 17 and 38 years, the sons were dead between 8 months and 10 years and although death causative was alcoholism, the circumstances of dying for the seven sons ranged from one poisoned while drunk, two sons from alcohol induced accidents, one suicide, two overdosed, and one murdered whilst drunk.

Keywords: Mother, Son, Death, alcoholism

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