Content creator Chebet Ronoh has laid bare the true cost of her battle with alcohol addiction, revealing in a BBC Africa interview that she lost millions at the very moment her career was thriving.
Appearing on BBC Africa’s The Conversation alongside addiction therapist Caroline Kagia, Chebet spoke candidly about a downward spiral that began in her teenage years and eventually threatened everything she had built as an influencer.
How alcohol drained her earnings
At the peak of her career, Chebet was closing four to five brand deals every month, bringing in as much as KSh 1.5 million. The money, however, rarely stayed in her pocket for long.
“I remember a lot of my money went to alcohol. I was desperate for validation and I wanted to prove so much to my friends. I wanted to say, ‘I can buy for you guys this, we can do this, it’s on me,'” she said.
She also began noticing that her relationship with alcohol was different from those around her.
“There are people who can drink, and they’re calm, and I started to notice, okay, I kind of go crazy,” she admitted.
Family steps in
Chebet made clear that going to rehab was not a decision she arrived at on her own. Her family reached a breaking point after she returned home one evening in a deeply distressed state, and her brother urged their mother to act.
“I don’t really think I acknowledged it, they made the choice for me. I remember one time I came home, and I was being very distraught, I was really crashing out, and my brother told my mum, ‘Mum, I think it’s time to take her to rehab,'” she recalled.
The moment she stepped through the doors of the facility, the reality of her situation hit her hard.
“Has it gotten this bad to the point that my family has made this choice for me?” she asked herself.
Therapist shares her own battle
The interview, hosted by BBC’s Nkechi Ogbonna, also featured therapist Caroline Kagia, whose story proved equally striking.
Kagia described selling her house doors, gas cooker, fridge, and even her son’s mountain bike and bed to fund her drinking habit, consuming roughly 800 bottles of hard liquor in six months.
Her father eventually stepped in after realising she was still alive against the odds. Kagia shared that she is now in her seventh year of sobriety.
Chebet’s openness about validation-seeking, financial loss, and the role her family played in her recovery has resonated widely with Kenyans online, many of whom praised her courage in speaking out.
The full interview is available on BBC Africa’s Instagram page.
