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Beer and other alcohol manufacturers have managed to worm their products into every aspect of Kenyan life with nary a voice raised warning about the malevolent dark side of this selectively addictive drug.
In a crafty and often unethical campaign which has left the media dazzled and muzzled by the billions of shillings in advertising revenue every year these new era Drug Barons have succeeded in making themselves invisible with a cloak of respectability named Corporate Responsibility, but which in reality is all a sham.
For instead they constantly seek new ways to get us to drink more and more in an aggressive marketing blitz which does not spare underage drinkers either in spite of a constant barrage of rhetoric to the contrary.
Yet alcohol is responsible for thousands of deaths every year in car crashes. University students terrorise hapless Kenyans and cause millions of shillings of damage every year under its influence. Schools have been burnt by teenagers and other underage drinkers in an unprecedented wave of unrest in Kenyan schools.
Reports abound in the local media of women, children and toddlers being raped or defiled by Kenyans ‘high’ on beer or other alcoholic beverages. HIV infection rates are skyrocketing due to casual and high-risk sex by Kenyans of all ages after a few drinks.
Through all this the booze industry continues to be the only source of information on this drug and their information exhorts the benefits of drinking. Alcohol will make you sexy, shows you are successful, with it, patriotic, sporty, witty charming and attractive.
So Kenyans continue to fall for it and suffer for it and die for it. Where is the voice of sanity in all this? Well the alcohol industry would have us believe they are. That as socially responsible business people, they are campaigning for responsible drinking habits.
This extremely recent phenomenon which started last year saw many of them start placing warnings with their adverts. ‘Over-consumption of alcohol is harmful to your health.’ Others ask you to drink in ‘moderation’ or ‘moderately’ while others warn not for sale to those under 18’s.
Responsible? Apparently that is until one looks at the size of these warnings and the placement. The print is tiny and often the colour of the text matches the surrounding artwork as to render the whole message almost invisible.
Yet even the messages are composed of the industry’s alcohol doublespeak. For what is “over-consumption” or “moderation?” Is over-consumption one bottle, two, ten? Is moderation two tots of spirits or five or half a bottle perhaps? Are these ambiguous warnings applicable proportionately to both male and female Kenyans?
If the industry is sincere in passing a message then they have to tell those who would consume alcohol that it should be consumed with caution. That alcohol is measured in what are known as units and that recommended daily intake is four units for men and two for women.
This is not because women are the so-called ‘weaker sex’ but because women have more body fat than men and hence less water for the alcohol which is water soluble to dissolve in. So it would be like trying to pour the same amount of water into a smaller bucket.
How can we put a unit into perspective? Let us use the example of one of Kenya’s most pervasively advertised alcoholic beverages - Tusker Lager beer. Four units works out to a tad over two Tuskers’ which means two for men and one for women.
This guideline is not meant for one to drink up to but instead is the maximum safe level if one is to drink at all. Yet when was the last time you saw Kenyans enter a bar and drink two beers before leaving?
The industry not only does not tell Kenyans’ about the lurking dangers in quaffing booze the way they do but instead actively encourages them to drink more using numerous subtle and not so subtle methods to increase unscrupulously and ruthlessly increase their bottom line.
Their strategy includes targeting underage drinkers by plastering warnings saying “not for sale to under 18s” while knowing full well that this only pressurises and attracts more under 18s’ who are trying to look older and more mature, to drink. Nor is it limited to organising glitzy the-more-you-drink-the-more-chances-of-winning competitions with grand-prizes like several four-wheel drive vehicles and houses as prizes which the gullible public are not even aware come out of their multi-billion shilling advertising budget.
Numerous radio programmes in the media also dish out free bottles of liquor during a rash of quiz programming which run every day sometimes several times a day not to mention unethical ads.
When one tries to raise the alarm the industry drowns these lone voices by righteously declaring that it is the few who drink "irresponsibly" or who "abuse" alcohol that create problems for the rest. Adroitly they shift the blame from their ‘product’ to the drinker and in spite of all the misery caused they laugh all the way to the bank. For the misery caused by alcohol not only to the drinker, but to those around him as well as relatives, friends, and employers is more than that of bhang, miraa (khat), and heroin combined!
This is why the idea for an alcohol awareness month annually must be supported by all Kenyans of reason if sanity is to once again prevail and the alcohol to be tamed. For alcohol will always be with us but the harm it causes can be drastically reduced. The 1st National Alcohol Awareness Month with the theme "Alcohol and HIV" was will be run in October by the goinghomedotcom Trust. "It is only by constant and accurate, unemotional information on alcohol and responsible drinking practices for those who would drink that the current toll being extracted on hapless Kenyans will be dimished."
Therefore as a former US Czar William Bennet was quoted in the New York Times Magazine on March 22, 1998 "if the liquor industry does not start acting in a more socially responsible way, it may soon find itself held in the same kind of esteem in which the tobacco companies are now held. The alcohol industry can act now. Or it can deny reality and pay later."
David Ogot Sr.
17th. September 2004
Nairobi, Kenya
The writer is a freelance journalist/producer with personal experience with alcoholism. He can be reached at goinghomedotcom@yahoo.com Website: www.goinghomekenya.org.
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