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'Match to tinder'
The Sunday Standard, by David Ogot, January 9 2005

Tomorrow I am going to have a beer or some whisky even though I am an alcoholic who during my 27-year drinking "career" caused hell on earth for my parent's, family, employers and friends.

Yes, many of you are reading this must be aghast thinking 'no we can't allow him to do this, we msut stop him'. But how will you stop me? There is no law in Kenya that prevents alcoholics from drinking. I'll be as I often used to boast "boozing my own money" (even though more often than not it wasn't).

So you are all helpless if I wish to drink, as the fact of the matter is the only person who can stop me drinking tomorrow is me! Using the knowledge that I have learned in this my fifth year of devouring all manner of materials which detail why I, as an alcoholic, can never safely drink again.

But in all these of alcohol and other drug abuse awareness, I have never told people not to drink. I have never said because of my genetic disposition, which prevents me from ever safely drinking again, that the beer factories or liqour distilleries should be closed.

Nor in the well over 100 published articles, countless TV and radio appearences, workshops, schools and other institutions have I lobbied for alcohol to be banned. My message has simply been if you are to drink alcohol in the first place, know why you drink it (not for lame reaons like "everybody does it" which incidentally they do not) and even then drink responsibly.

So imagine my shock and consternation that suddenly my good friend the National Coordinator for the National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse, Mr Joseph Karuga Kaguthi, is leading many professionals in a frenzied media campaign that there is no such thing as rwesponsible drinking.

To wit during a drug abuse feature on nation TV on January 1, this year when asked his position on responsible drinking Kaguthi replied, "Let's not any more be cheated as a country that there is something called resposnible drinking. It doesn't work."

With a sensitive issue such as the drug absue campaign, any public utterance must be (pardon the pun) sober. Blanket or casual statements like this, are extremely dangerous, especially when the message is aimed at the youth.

Feeling

For many of them listen intently waiting for the one mistake they can pick out. Once they find it, it helps to overcome any lingering uneasiness caused by feeling that you are telling the truth and it allows them to disregard the other 99 per cent of your message which is correct. Often this has tragic results. In numerous articles I have stated often in capital letters, ALCOHOL DOES NOT CAUSE ALCOHOLISM. For if it did then everybody who drank would become alcoholic. But let us go back to last month when a series of events provided tinder that needed only a slight spark to turn into a raging bonfire.

Early in December, three young people dies in a stampede as they wait to enter a music event. Hot on the heels of this came an estimated Shs. % billion cocaine bust, the largest haul in Kenya, possibly on the whole continent. Before the country could get its breath back, nine Kenyans died after drinking adulterated illicit bootleg, while several others were blinded.

Kaguthi threw match to tinder with a press conference after the intitial three deaths. called at the Nacada boardroom was a villain was sought; someone had to pay and with subsequent media appearances British American Tobacco (BAT) and East African Breweries were singled out with the culprit for drug drug absue being fuelled by their advertisements. The office of the National Coordinator and the appointement of the current NC, was gazetted vide notice no 2841 in 2001 with the terms of reference for the appointment being to co-ordinate the activities of individuals and organisations in the campaign against drug abuse, and for that purpose to:

Two extensions, four years, a shift from the Office of the President to the Ministry of Home Affairs and in September last year quietly back to the OP, and millions of shillings later, it is eveident that something is not working.

Information

People are still drinking and dying from illicit brews. The issue of traditional alcoholic beverages has not been clarified. Underage drinking appears to be rampant. Bhang smoking is open and widespread. Constant, coordinated research on various aspects of drug abuse is woeful and in fits and spurts. What little information is there is scattered and almost impossible to access (even NACADA to date has no website or email address) and we still have no alcohol policy and no drug policy. Drug abuse awareness should not be policticised. Needless attacks as Kaguthi has launched last year 9he started with NGO's claiming they were squandering millions yet with nothing to show for this, stating that his position is that one well trained journalist is better than 100 'useless' NGOs) is indeed callous and a slap in the face for these groups that actually do good work with extremely limited funds.

The drug absue phenomenon tears at the very fabric of society. That means you and I. we need to give suggestions to Mr kaguthi, even though many claim (often jsutifiably) that he marches to the sound of a drummer only he can hear. But this issue is bigger than personalties. Indeed speaking strictly for myself as a recovering alcoholic, I will remind Kaguthi that I am not a statistic, wale watu (those people), but a person and will not allow this cause which is very dear to me to be politicised.

To me, everyday is a day I have to work on staying sober. To me it is not politics, theories or slick sound bites for the media but a matter of life and death. I cannot drink again safely. But my message for those who would drink is drink responsibly, for indeed a majority of those who drink alcohol do so responsibly.

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