Relationship between Watching ‘Gengetone’ Music and Drug Abuse among the Youth in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya

Drugs, substance and alcohol abuse by many youths is as a result of various factors. Research conducted in the past have looked at how mass media channels (video and TV) and their influence on abuse of drugs and other substances among the youth. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how drug-related information portrayed on Gengetone music influences drugs and substance abuse among youths in Eldoret town. The research objectives were to investigate how the acceptability level of ‘Gengetone’ music and videos among youths, to examine ways in which ‘Gengetone music lyrics communicate information on drugs, substance and alcohol abuse and establish the effect of listening of Gengetone music on drugs and substance abuse among youths in Uasin Gishu County. The study adopted George Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory. The study utilised descriptive survey. Questionnaires and interviews were utilised to collect data from selected youths aged 20 – 30 years residing in Eldoret town four estates numbering 80 and one county officer in charge of NACADA North Rift office. Analysis of data was done through qualitative (content analysis method) and quantitative approaches (descriptive statistics); The study found out that indeed lyrics, images and videos contained in some Gengetone music promoted drugs, substance and alcohol abuse by young people in the study area. This means that music preference performed a significant role in determining the level of drugs and substance abuse by youth in Eldoret town. This calls for stakeholder involvement in educating the upcoming artist on the importance of developing Gengetone music that is clean and creates awareness on the dangers of youth addiction to drugs, other substances and alcohol.


INTRODUCTION
Drugs and substance abuse refers to hazardous and harmful consumption of psycho-active stuff like illicit drugs and alcohol which are banned by public health authorities across the world (World Health Organisation, 2011). The abuse of drugs and substances among the youths has been an issue of concern in many countries across the world. Majority of young people appear to abuse drugs, substances and alcohol during leisure period. O'Callaghan et al. (2012) that listening to music are one of the main leisure activities which youths enjoy and appear to be one of the avenues through they find their identity, emotional support and personal motivation. The above mentioned is not a full quantification of the importance that music holds in individuals' daily lives, but it is a likely indicator of that importance (Eliiasson, 2020). One of the music genres that have a lot of following by young people is 'hip-hop'. It is a music genre that is inundated with lyrics that glamour up extravagant lifestyles of the wealthy and celebrated, wild adventures and fancy cars. Some songs in these genres overlook the consumption of alcohol and illicit drugs use. Popular music like "Mask Off" sang by future and "Can't Feel My Face" sang by the Weekend are common examples of common hip-hop songs that contain messages of drugs and substance abuse.
Youths between the ages of 18 and 35 are the most expected age category to embrace hip-hop music genre, and in turn might be rendered insensible to the disparaging lyrics ignoring drugs and substance abuse in addition to relationship violence (Cundiff, 2013). Other variables linking bhang usage and music are the lyrics the listener pays attention to, with the exposure to the songs that they listen. For example, persons listening to songs alluding bhang in low moods or stressful period may endorse the advantages of utilising the drug and may therefore persuade those listening to try it. Young people may also have the incorrect thinking that musicians required drugs to improve on their artistic cravings or musicians required drugs to assist them empty up their mindset to develop new. Young people may also incorrectly perceive musicians who consume drugs can better handle conditions like stress, anxiety, low self-esteem and depression.

Gengetone Music
Gengetone evolved from Genge-rap, a musical style incredibly popular in the 2000s in Kenya. It blends rap with reggae on and dancehall infusions resulting in a high-energy and danceready sound. The music is also characterised by its explicit lyrics and commentary that reflect the current lifestyle of the 'hood' experience, usually rapped or sung in "sheng". A version of Swahili slang, "sheng" is a constantly evolving language and the subliminal meanings behind some of the words used in Gengetone songs give these artists more notoriety in the streets (Storm, 2020). We use street language [sheng] to code some of the raw things we want to say. The explicit lyrics are to communicate to our fans because they can relate and they themselves speak the same, so we connect," says Sailors Locally, "Lamba Lolo" was banned from being played on radio and television; while many argued that this kind of music is not the best influence on the youth.

Drug and Substance Abuse in Kenya
According to the study by Mugusia (2011) on rapid situation assessment of sociodemographic, behavioural risk features, HIV condition of Injecting Drugs Use (IDU) in the county of Mombasa recognised 40 areas known as 'maskani' in the addict' speech, where the young people assemble to take up drugs and other substances. According to Mugusia, whereas marijuana was still an admired drug, it was rapidly being surpassed by injected heroin with 70.0% of respondents indicating that they were utilising it. Young people abuse drugs for various motives; some persons required drugs for health purposes while others consume them to change their moods. All drugs and substances consumed for various motives may result psychological or physical reliance (addiction) with regular utilisation and withdrawal from these drugs could be harmful to social, psychological and physical functioning of a person (Mueller & Ketcham, 1987).

Music and Drugs and Substance Abuse by Youths in Kenya
The mass media capacity to influence young people behaviours is not astounding bearing in mind the extent to which these youths are exposed to (Kimani et al., 2020). The youthful age is considered a stage of transition from childhood to adulthood (also known as adolescence). Youth is also a stage of growth and of transformation in almost all features of an individual emotional, social, mental and physical life (Kamaara, 2005). It is a stage of new relationships, new responsibilities and new experiences with adults in addition to friends of the same age. It is a time that the young person also becomes independent and appears to depend on the views of the peers that they associate with. In this period, mass media performs a significant function in youth socialisation. Most youth who are aged between 13-17 years old expend most of their time watching films, television and listening to radios. Therefore, music may impact on youth behaviour thorough its words. Drugs and substance use wordings happen regularly in hip-hop or rap compared to other genres of music (Harakeh & Ter Bogt, 2018). Music is significant in youth lives, and they are daily exposed to it. But there is unease that youth listening to specific music types could have harmful impact on their behaviours and attitudes. Hip-hop/rap genres of music has become popular among young people in the last thirty years, it has been criticised for promotion of problem behaviour, because to the regular references to substance abuse and violence in their lyrics.
In Kenya, mass media also has an array of films and music that promote drugs and other substances. For instance, media advertisement before Tobacco Control Act 2007 came into effect feature alcohol and cigarettes during the watershed period. Nevertheless, with campaign by various organs, the advertisement of drugs and other substances has been downscaled to happen from 10:00pm in the evening till 5:00 in the morning. Kimani, Tumuti and Ndambuki (2020) argued that the effect of mass media on psychosocial development of youth in the country intense. The country has observed significant and prompt mass media expansion, whose sizeable share of aspects is based on western culture. The information relayed on this platform centres on sexuality, relationships, drugs and violence. Literature indicates that youth are heavy consumers of print and electronic media information. Most promotions and programmes normally have advertisements on cigarette smoking and alcohol. Scholars have found out that, alcohol advertisement looks to relate drinking with having popular virtues or experiencing happiness. Advertisement endevour to make alcohol a significant component of better life, fitting manliness and other persuasive subjects. Cigarette and alcohol promotions hence aim to develop a climate through which consumption of alcohol and over-usage is normal actions (Atkin & Block, 1981). Wanjala and Kebaya (2016) indicated that music role in creation and modelling of identity cannot be refuted because music signifies an essential cultural subject where identities are reconstructed, torn apart, challenged or affirmed. Most youth consume music which they have higher regard for to differentiate themselves from their colleagues. Therefore, selection of music by youth normally performance an important indicator of the nature and character of identity that is being developed. Music is supposed to be entertaining, to illuminate life, but the advancement and manifestation of musical taste may also be a crucial statement concerning a person's identity. Hip-hop music which 'genge' is classified under has had the major attraction and influence on many youths in the country. The impact of music and its singers on general identity construction is invasive, complicated and extensive in its cultural implication.

Statement of the Problem
KFCB (2016) indicated that the institution had been continuously receiving and documenting protests from across the country with regard to obscene and vulgar music that is broadcasted in public areas in the watershed period. Nevertheless, these complaints (majority) are communicated through social media channels and other mass media platforms which in most cases do not come to the attention of the regulator. Some popular music that appeared in the complaints was found to be exceedingly rude and naughty lyrics and titles of the music could not be performed in public spaces during watershed hours.
One of the music genres that have been mentioned is Gengetone music. Research examining the contribution of Gengetone music towards drugs and substance abuse is inadequate. The current study examined the role that Gengetone music on drugs and substance abuse among youths in Eldoret Town, Uasin Gishu County, Kenya.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Russell, Regnier-Denois, Chapoton and Buhrau (2017) investigated the function of connectedness with songs videos in influencing youths' perceptions concerning drugs and other substances entrenched therein and the capacity for deterrence information to curtail the influence of these videos and pictures. The study was divided into two, the first one utilised cross-sectional data from a sample of 1,023 youths (around 54.3%) comprising males to examine the connectedness between young people music videos consumption and their views concerning the impact of consuming tobacco and alcohol. The second study was a control one that involved 151 male youths (representing 57.0%) where they examined whether exposure to smoking while watching video affected their smoking perceptions and the deterrent potential of pre-video warning. They concluded that most youths spend many hours daily to watch music videos through which positive beliefs concerning smoking and drinking of alcohol thrive. Instead of the amount of viewing, it is the extent to which young people immerses themselves in these videos that improves their perceptions that drinking and smoking has positive impacts.
Eliiasson (2020) examined the relationship between substance abuse (tobacco, alcohol and other illicit substances), individual preference to music and social-economic condition among students at University of Reykjavik, Iceland. Hip-hop/rap music was expected to be the preferable music many related with on drugs and substance abuse. Respondents that had low social economic scores were also expected to show higher level of drugs and substance abuse. The study participants included 289 students who were issued with questionnaire through online method. Demographic information showed that 56.3% were female while 43.7% were male. Their age category ranged between 18-36 years or older when the investigation was performed. From their investigation, RnB/Pop was found to be the most popular music that was preferred by the respondents under study. To assess the relationship between variables, Spearman correlation infused with crosstabs was utilised. Findings showed a strong relationship between electronic music listening and utilising drugs and substance abuse like cocaine, ecstasy, LSD and MDMA. Normally, listening to RnB/pop music was constantly negatively associated with drugs and substance abuse. The relationship was significant with cocaine and bhang use. Findings also showed a weak positive relationship between social economic status and illicit substance abuse. This meant that as social economic status decreases, the illicit substance abuse increased.
Harakeh and Ter Bogt (2018) examined whether exposure to hip-hop/rap music lyrics attributing to drugs and substance abuse influenced smoking behaviour. The study used a three group between experimental subject designs targeting 74 regular smoking youths who were aged 17 -25 years. ANOVA outcomes revealed that individuals listening to substance use quoting hip-hop/rap music felt significantly less pleasurable, preferred the music less, and understood the music less compared to individuals who were listening to pop music. Poisson log-linear analyses that that compared to the pop music condition, none of the two rap/hip-hop song conditions had a significant effect on acute smoking. Thus, contrary to expectations, the two different rap/hip-hop conditions did not have a significantly different impact on acute smoking. Listening to hip-hop /rap, even hip-hop/rap with frequent referrals to substance use (general smoking referrals and primarily alcohol and drug use), does not seem to encourage smoking of cigarette among Dutch regular smoking youth, at least for a short period.
KFCB's (2016) report showed that a significant majority of music reviewed openly showcase and exalted the alcohol, drugs and other substances use including bhang. These have continued to negatively influence the youth, while frustrating government efforts to tame the same vices. Given that these artists are superstars who are considered as role models by the young people, the desire to imitate them has pushed many young people into these vices, in the end destroying lives and causing huge economic losses to their families. In Nakuru County, Kimani et al. (2020) sought to examine the association between levels of exposure to mass media and drug abuse by students in selected secondary schools. The study applied a survey research design. Based on this, questionnaires were used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. The study was carried out in the 3 Sub-counties of Nakuru county that were: Molo, Nakuru North and Nakuru town. The sample size for the investigation consisted of 482 which were chosen from a target of 12,300 students from the above-mentioned sub-counties. The study results showed that the levels of exposure to mass media are related to students' Drug abuse. The body suggested that parents, teachers and government undertake strategies to control the harmful impact of media consumption by learners like, such as indulgence in drug and substance abuse.

Theoretical Framework
The paper is anchored on cultivation theory which was developed by Gerbener, Gross, Morgan and Signorielli, 1994). Cultivation theory states that the more an individual (here in this study a youth) is exposed to a message provided by the media (Gengetone music), the more likely that individual is to believe the message is real. The theory also states that viewers who listen and watch more music will be more influenced than those who watch less and that "the cumulative effect of music is to create a synthetic world that heavy viewers come to see as reality" (Reber & Chang, 2000). This means that young people listening or watching to various genres of music exposes them to various factors like violence, immorality, indiscipline and drugs and substance abuse (Cundiff, 2013). Creske (2014) alluded that youth repeated exposure to auditory cues, explicit lyrics, and images sustain and nourish the ideology of a model. Listeners are then more likely to make decisions, adopt thinking processes, and behave similar to the content contained in the music they are exposed to (Knobloch-Westerwick, Musto, & Shaw, 2008). For example, if a young person is repeatedly exposed to a song that contains lyrics about drinking, they are going to be more likely to drink versus someone who has not been exposed repeatedly to the same song. This paper specifically looks at the influence of Gengetone music on drugs, substance and alcohol abuse by youth in Eldoret Town Uasin Gishu County to see if there are positive, negative, or no influences.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study was conducted in Eldoret town, Uasin Gishu District four estates; Huruma, Langas, Kimumu and Annex. In terms of age, young people aged 20-30 years within Uasin Gishu County. Further, NACADA North Rift Regional Manager participated in the study as a key informant. The respondents were exclusively sampled to provide their input on the degree to which Gengetone music influenced drugs and substance abuse among the youths. Various Gengetone music was sampled to extra information on how their lyrics communicated information concerning drugs, substances and alcohol. To collect data, the following research instruments were used: questionnaire for youths and interview schedule for NACADA officer. The other method of data collection is observation, but this study never used the observation method to collect information.
The instruments were administered to selected respondents after approval from relevant authorities. Analysis of data was performed using descriptive statistics for quantitative data and thematic content analysis for qualitative data.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The section presents the findings on the influence of Gengetone music on drugs and substance abuse by youths in Eldoret town, Uasin Gishu County. Tracing back to history, Gengetone is a genre of hip-hop music combined with dancehall music that can be traced to Nairobi Kenya. The genre started in the late 1990s and came to prominence in the first decade of the 21 st century. Notable artist that has been associated with Gengetone music in Kenya include; Nonini ( (Nyundo), among other artists over the last twenty years. Some of Gengetone music promotes abuse and use of drugs, obscenity, immorality or even violence. The issue under this paper is to describe how these songs that have been sung over the last twenty years contribute to drugs and substance abuse among youth in Kenya. The study collected views from 76 youths from four estates of Eldoret town (four did not return the survey instrument). Their demographic information is presented in Table 1.  (9.2%) liked reggae/ Ragga while 3 (3.9%) said that they were interested with other genres of music. This means that many youths that were sampled in this study do prefer listening and watching to Gengetone music. The information they would provide would help in understanding whether the lyrics associated with some of the Gengetone music promote or discourage drugs and substance abuse.
On the degree of youths' abuse of drugs, alcohol is the most frequently abused drug with a response-frequency of 43 (56.6%), followed by tobacco, 16 (21.1%), cannabis/ bhang, 14 (18.4%) and cocaine, 3 (3.9%). This is in agreement with a study carried out at the Great Lakes University which found out that a staggering 58% of respondents (youth) had consumed alcohol, 34% had used tobacco, 32% khat, 18% cannabis and 5% cocaine (Maithya, 2009).
Considering that most youth did not admit to be using drugs or taking alcohol, the study conducted a discourse analysis of various lyrics found in some Gengetone music and determines whether they had lines that advocated for or against substance and drugs abuse. The P-Unit & Nonini Song 'Si Lazima tu do' advocating for abstinence of sex has the following lyrics in Verse 3 (sang by Boni aka Bon'eye) Karibia ma (come closer my girl) Karibia (be closer)

Pata tot (take a drink which is 40% alcohol)
Bamba pia (pleasing also)

Tayari (prepared)
Nishakuambia (already told her) Sio lazima nitainigia (it is not a must for him to have sex with her)

Ni ile day ya kufurahia (it is the day of being happy)
Hakuna cha ngono ni mziki na gauge (no sex but music and intoxication) According to the lyrics in the above song, it can be seen that despite the song being against sex, there are instances as highlighted above where intake of alcohol in excess is encouraged. Considering this music is influential to the young people, some could be susceptible to it and therefore start taking whisky, alcohol and other intoxicating drinks leading to the problem of alcoholism among them which is high in Eldoret town estate. In Nonini Gengetone Music titled 'Manzi wa Nairobi' in Verse 1 line 16 says Checky vile natetemeka ni kama nimekunywa chang'aa (look at how I'm trembling as if I have consumed local brewwhich is illegal) According to the artist, he describes that when one consumes local brew, he/she cannot be able to stand up well and therefore end up staggering. The message being disseminated here is that individuals should not consume local brew 'chang'aa because it makes someone not to be sober and hence disliked by many. This is a song lyric that discourages individuals from taking this brew as it affects their concentration hence creating awareness of the dangers of consuming it. Another Gengetone Music song by Jua kali titled 'Kiasi' Verse 1 line reads that: Kabla pombe iniue itabidi nimeiwacha kabisa ama nianze kuikunywa (before alcohol kills me, I have to stop drinking or I start drinking less) In the first line the musician admits that heavy consumption of alcohol could lead to death but in the second line, he has other thoughts of continuing drinking which makes him to be dirty, have unkempt hair and people start talking about him. This means that despite knowing the consequences of drinking, the singer fails to warn or stop drinking in the next lines. This means that some youths may be addicted to alcoholism and may continue doing so despite the health risks they are subjecting themselves to. This shows how song music/lyrics promote alcoholism in the country. Jimw@t song titled 'Under 18' has several lines advocating for alcoholism in his song as narrated below.
Nishamwagizia Smirnoff ice na Sambuca (requested Smirnoff ice beer and Sambuca for her) Waiter ulete chupa tatu for me myself and I (waiter bring for me 3 bottles for himself)

Eti kijana mangaa (a notorious guy)
Inanunulia mtoto chang'aa (buys children local brew) The theme of the song talks about how a man went to the club and bought alcohol for an under-aged girl where he later found out that she was under the age of 18 years. This shows that there is a tendency of men to purchase alcohol for underage girls in luring them into sexual encounters without looking at their age. This is the problem that the country is faced with as narrated by the NACADA officer interviewed who said that: Majority of urban music sang by Kenyan artists promote in some way drug and substance abuse through their lyrics and the video images found in their songs. These songs corrupt the mind of young people as they look at the artists as role models, which mess up their life when they start being addicted to drugs.
This means that one of the causes of increased drug and substance abuse incidents among Kenyan youth is the lyrics in the Gengetone music by artists. They seem to glorifying intoxication and not soberness. The effect they are having on society is grave. On their part, the researcher asked the youths whether Gengetone music lyrics promote drugs and substance abuse. Their responses are summarized in Table  3. This shows that the war of regulating content that promotes drug and substance abuse among the youths is in the social media sphere. Nevertheless, the youths indicated a different opinion, out of 76 youth, 30 (39.5%) strongly agreed that drug-related information shown through music played TV and video was very appealing, 26 (34.2%) agreed, 10 (13.2%) undecided, 6 (7.9%) disagreed and 4 (5.3%) strongly disagreed as shown. This is in agreement with Kemei (2014), who stated that drug-related messages in radio and TV stations are usually attractive and persuasive and are likely to influence young people to copy the behaviour of artists they admire and would like to be identified with. Nevertheless, there is a need for mentorship of upcoming Gengetone artists on the need to avoid lyrics that propagates violence, drug abuse, alcoholism, gender violence and also other negative social evils. They need to change their lyrics to discourage young people from being engaged in drugs, substance abuse and alcoholism.

CONCLUSIONS
The paper has focused on the role of Gengetone music towards drugs and substance abuse among youths in Eldoret Town, Uasin Gishu County. The Gengetone music has been around for more than twenty years at is considered the original Kenyan urban hip hop music genre. The music has a huge following among young people in Kenya and therefore information contained in the songs' lyrics may influence the behaviour of the youths positively or negatively. From the review of findings discovered above, it has been established that some Gengetone music create awareness on the dangers of substance abuse and alcoholism while more than 50.0% of these songs do promote drugs and substance abuse in their lyrical content. This could explain the rising incidents of young adults being addicts to drugs and alcoholism with one of the contributors being Gengetone music. Furthermore, some videos from Gengetone tracts also have images of individuals smoking bhang, cigarettes and shisha. Furthermore, other videos do have individuals who are intoxicated and 'high' while others even show graphics of various drugs in their music videos. Considering young people are susceptible to be influenced by the artist that they adore, the kind of messages that those songs are one of the contributors to incidents of drugs and substance abuse by youth in Eldoret town. This paper calls for full stakeholder involvement to educate upcoming artists on the impact of their songs on the fight against drugs and substance abuse that is escalating day by day. Further, the government through KFCB should come up with incentives of supporting artists who propagate 'clean content' in their music irrespective of genre in order to address the negative effects of drugs and substance abuse.