Omosh: My journey to redemption from zombie alcoholism
Comedian Joseph Kinuthia aka Omosh now sees the folly in binge drinking and believes there is no pride in taking alcohol, it is for the ignorant and not for the too wise.
The famous actor who is curving his niche on TikTok spoke to Nairobi News about his life update.
Omosh who now earns a living as an employee in a timber yard in Kikuyu town Kiambu Count said his history with alcohol is full of regrets and every moment he spent getting high only led to folly.
He says the only thing he came out of it with was ‘silly nicknames’ from his fellow alcoholics and poverty.
Omosh told Nairobi News that he abandoned alcoholism in 2022 but on January 9, 2023 was the day he decided “to throw the nonsense of my life on the cross of Lord Jesus and got born again”.
He wept profusely, pleading with God to save him from self-destruction.
“I had since stopped taking alcohol but quitting cigarettes was the problem and I prayed for one hour to God to help me break the yoke of nicotine in my life…I cried as I prayed,” he said.
He says God took him down memory lane and audited his life so far from “how I grew up desiring a straight life…how I was brought up in a Christian way…”
Omosh says that God talked directly to him, and told him “Omosh, your cry has reached me, you are redeemed”.
He says the urge of cigarettes departed from him…the cravings died and he laid all his baggage on the cross and moved on”.
The TV actor said he made a conscious decision that “it was not about reforming to get rich but to save my soul” and became faithful to the Redeemed Gospel Church in Nairobi’s Komarock estate “which is a sanctuary that made me feel safe”.
Omosh says his route to self-destruction in alcoholism was influenced by friends he made in the course of his life.
“To make those friends happy and earn me a sense of belonging, I became an alcoholic, cigarettes and bhang smoker,” he said.
He says in retrospect, he is ashamed of the wrongs he committed while under the influence, admitting that he dismissed those who showed concern for him “as intrusive, snitches, and bothers.”
Omosh says, “With time alcoholism and drug abuse became an addiction—a history that lasted 30 years—the equivalent of nearly 50 per cent of my life so far.”
This addiction sent him into a spiral. He remembers being suicidal engaging in reckless driving and wishing death on himself.
“I have lost opportunities, trust and respect. But since I discarded the addiction and reformed, I am winning lost ground including the pillar of my life is family that I had neglected,” he said.
He remembers a one night of indulgence that started at 9 pm to 9 am that left his monthly salary depleted—“money that I had earned for 30 days going up in smoke in 12 hours paying for alcohol that I took with friends”.
Omosh describes sinking into servitude debts, with his economic life becoming his misery, where his talent, earnings, and life turned into adversaries, leading to a desperate plea for help to be rescued from himself.
He says he had a name, a brand that “I did not take advantage of then, but now trying to make amends with inspiration that it is better late than never.”
He says he suffered from depression but alcohol would conceal it, stifling it to the backsides of his consciousness to the point he started becoming a zombie without knowing.
“There reached a point that I started exhibiting traits of insanity but God loves me…I survived,” he said.
He says the house that a well-wisher built him is still intact and safe “but reasons of why I am yet to occupy it are none of your business…also note that it is not up for sale.”
He says he is now a vessel of the Lord to promote the goodness and amazing grace of God… and “to all experimenting with alcohol and drugs…kindly stop…it shall end in tears”.
For those struggling with addiction, Omosh says “I am with you, develop a will to quit and run to God in whose fold dwells all reprieves”.