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By David Ogot
An article 'Where is consensus in chang'aa debate' (EAS 30.12.02) by Wanjiku Ndirangu where
she asks us to examine the reasons for or against repeal, cannot pass without comment.
These range from 'is it to reduce alcohol related harm, which
we should then have recognised and quantified' to increase
in consumption if legalised leading to increase in 'more
liver disease, aggression, violent behaviour, marital discord,
domestic violence, child neglect and abuse and worsening
household poverty.'
What are the reasons behind contamination of these brews by the distillers? Is it for profit,
malevolence, lack of control or just accidental Wanjiku poses?
The writer makes a call to the relevant
ministries, and leaders in public health "to spearhead
research to establish the facts; the ramifications of chang'aa
use and other alcoholic beverages should be be unraveled
equivocally."
There then is the crunch! Chang'aa or any other alcohol
as I have constantly stated in this column and other forums
has as its active ingredient ethanol and that is what causes
you to get 'high' or 'aire' and leads to domestic
and other violence, road accidents, petty (and sometimes
not so petty) crimes, deaths by misadventure (e.g falling,
fights, fires caused by falling asleep holding a lit cigarette
or trying to cook when high etc)domestic and job disharmony,
poor finances, destruction of families ad infinitum.
These are the ramifications from any alcohol whether whisky,
rum, gin, champagne or chang'aa or beer.
To simplify this debate one must first
look at the reasons why we drink alcohol (or consume any
other mood altering substance) in the first place? To relax,
socialise, peer pressure, curiosity, relieve stress, we
are alcoholic, cannot face or cope with reality, ducking
responsibility, believe it shows you have arrived (Umefika)
and are successful, it is the in thing to do, 'everybody
does it' what else is there to do etc.
We must then look at why we as Africans who used alcohol only at certain times and for
certain ceremonies with clear parameters of who could drink (age, sex, amount) and when and where have
arrived at a situation where even pre-teens believe they cannot attend any social function
without first having quaffed copious quantities of alcohol.
Like me who first tasted alcohol in first form in 1974 blissfully
unaware of the horrific road I would travel for the next
27 years todays youngsters have know idea of the genie they
are uncorking everytime they open a container of alcohol.
And this genie can be if provoked by abuse extremely malevolent.
Yet there seems to be nobody making a concerted effort to
educate the public on the dangers of alcohol use and abuse.
Nobody until recently the Office of the National Coordinator was gazetted resulting in the
National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse or by its more familiar acronym NACADA,
headed by the indomitable, indefatigable Joseph Kaguthi former PC of Nairobi.
Why do I describe him thus? Because as Kenyans if we are to succeed in reducing the chaos
and deaths caused by alcohol consumption we must be indefatigable in our efforts and indomitable
in spirit if we are to save our youth.
Yet what do many Kenyans say when Kaguthi and other like minded concerned individuals try to
advice, they scoff. They laugh! They say the fellow is crying wolf there is no cause for alarm.
"He still thinks he is a PC and can still go around closing bars. No way he can't interfere
with our right to drink." In this they would be correct. Nobody can actually interfere with
your 'right' to drink. "Leave that puritan Kaguthi" alone. (I am quoting from an assortment of
names he has been called in articles and letters in the newspapers.)
So they drink on defiantly watched by their children who
imitate them as they are also spurred on by constant media
bombardment on the TV screens, in the newspapers, on Billboards,
on the radio in promotions until finally the same fellow
sits back when his child has an alcohol problem or has died
in a car crash and wonders why God has forsaken him? Every
day I hear parents asking "where did I go wrong?"
My parents asked the same question yet my father hardly
drinks and my mother does not'
Unfortunately the consequences of one's drinking are usually brutally borne by those close to
the drinker who were not there when he was having his 'fun' enjoined in his 'right' to drink.
They (the drinkers) should also have the right to bear the consequences.
Incidentally Kaguthi does not drink alcohol so why should he bother if the rest of the
Kenyans want to soak their brains in alcohol? He is aware and has made sure he has informed his
children as I have informed mine of the dangers involved. Why have I told my story with all its
sordid details the length and breath of Kenya including talking to thousands of school kids and
even at great personal expense made a documentary on the same? Believe you me washing your
dirty linen in front of a bunch of strangers is not easy.
But this is the attitude we must change. They are not 'strangers'
but our brothers and sisters, parents, uncles and aunties
- they are our fellow Kenyans! What affects one affects
all of us. Believe me there are tens of Kenyans out there
who are recovering alcoholics or addicts who are quietly
with no reward or recognition doing the same thing I and
a few other recovering people, are doing publicly. All this
in the hope that if only one person will not travel
to hell and back as I did then it is worth it. If one
person who is already there can feel "if Ogot etc can
do it so can I" it will be worth it. If parents or
kids who had given up hope on their afflicted loved ones
can have that last, dying ember of hope burst into flame
again - it will have been worth it! If we can start taking
the havoc alcohol can cause seriously it will have been
worth it.
Education and awareness is the only way
ahead. Walk around your estate or in town next time and
look at the morass of plastic on the ground. You will be
shocked at how many are empty alcohol mini-packs (sachet)
containers. And where you find the most packs are likely
to be where the neighborhood youth hang out. Mini-packs
are now being sold all over the place including on the street
with sweets and biscuits. What happened to the liquor licensing
act? Nothing! It was still there the last time I checked.
So why isn't it being enforced?
Because alcohol is not seen as a drug least of all a drug that can harm. Alcohol kills and
causes terrible misery before it does. Pure and simple. Know what you consume then decide
whether to consume it and in what quantities or not. For ultimately even though your family and
friends will suffer, with alcohol use the biggest sufferer is you.
So do we legalise chang'aa? Yes for it is only when it is legal that periodic mass
deaths or blindness due to methanol and other additives, poisoning will end. Then educate the
public. Have clearly defined times and places and ages for who may drink alcohol and enforce
these.
Once you have thoroughly educated the public on this issue you have done your duty. He/She will
not be able to cry "if only somebody had told me!" as I did.
If you have read this piece in full and
feel 'fired' and energies to go and get more information
on alcohol use and consequences and indefatibly all those
around you on the same without awaiting government ministries,
teachers, church leaders etc, (for in this fight everyone
is a campaigner)- IT WILL HAVE BEEN WORTH IT!
David Ogot is a freelance
journalist/producer who has personal experience with alcoholism. He can be reached at
goinghomedotcom@yahoo.com or alternatively at info@goinghomedotcom.org
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