Helping Kenyans reclaim their lives since 2019.
We are East Africa’s leading centre for gambling addiction support and mental health services — free, confidential, and rooted in community.
Mission & vision.
Care for every family that needs it.
To provide free, professional, and compassionate support to individuals and families affected by gambling addiction and mental health challenges across East Africa.
Dignified care for everyone.
A Kenya where every person struggling with addiction has access to dignified, effective care — regardless of income or background.
Six years of building this, one conversation at a time.
Founded in response to a crisis no one was naming.
In 2019, the rapid spread of mobile sports betting was reshaping life for young Kenyan men — quietly, and at enormous personal cost. Our founder, a clinical psychologist working in Nairobi, kept hearing the same story in consultation rooms: families losing savings, school fees disappearing overnight, shame keeping people silent.
There was no free, local service to refer them to. So we built one.
2019 — Founded
2020 — Going nationalFrom one Nairobi room to every county in Kenya.
Our first weekly support group ran out of a borrowed church hall in Westlands. When COVID closed those doors, we moved to WhatsApp and Zoom — and discovered something important: people we could never have reached in person were finally getting help.
Today we run twelve active support groups — a mix of in-person sessions in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu, and online groups serving every county in Kenya.
Becoming EACMHS.
What began as a gambling-specific service kept colliding with a wider truth: addiction rarely travels alone. Anxiety, depression, and untreated trauma sit underneath the behaviour for most of the people we work with.
In 2024 we registered as the East Africa Centre for Mental Health Services — broadening the mandate to cover the mental health challenges we were already, in practice, helping people navigate.
2024 — EACMHSFour values, held without exception.
Compassion
We meet people where they are — without judgement, without pressure, without a script.
Confidentiality
What you share with us stays with us. No data sold, no names shared, no questions logged.
Community
Recovery happens in relationship. Our groups are peer-led and rooted in the cities and counties they serve.
Accessibility
Free at the point of need, available in Swahili, English, and the language you grew up speaking.
The people behind the work.
A small, senior-led team of clinicians, peer-support leads, and programme staff. Twelve more counsellors and forty volunteer facilitators run the groups across the country.
Dr. Amina Wanjiku
Licensed psychologist with 12 years in addiction medicine. Leads all clinical programmes and counsellor training across the EACMHS network.
James Otieno
Former peer support volunteer who joined full-time in 2021. Runs all support groups across Nairobi and oversees facilitator development.
Faith Muthoni
Oversees day-to-day operations and partner relationships. Passionate about making mental healthcare accessible to all Kenyans, regardless of postcode.
Working alongside the institutions that make this possible.
Want to support our work?
Every shilling and every hour goes directly into counselling sessions, support groups, and the helpline. Join us.