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If you repeat myth and misinformation often enough it comes to be accepted as truth and that is why most of you believe one of the biggest myths of all that 'the sun rises!' when it actually does not.

Yes tomorrow will come but it will not come with the sun rising. No. Tomorrow will come with the 'horizon setting' for that is what actually happens. Chew on that for a while, and the fact that the sun also does not 'set' - it is the horizon which 'rises'.

It is while we mull over these home-truths that we come to a well crafted but misinformed commentary by Ongundu Narotso Cyprian in the People On Sunday newspaper. (It's time to rethink policies on alcohol' People On Sunday October 19, 2003)

This article as well as being riddled with fallacies was based more on emotion rather than tangible facts and heavily slanted in favour of an interested party namely budding alcohol manufacturers.

The commentary was almost an exact replica of another which appeared earlier this year in the June 19th. edition of 'The Big Issue' of the East African Standard newspaper under the heading 'Alcoholic drinks: how to spur growth in local liquor industry' where Ongudo signed off as an anthropologist.

However it is to the most recent one that I refer as he talks about raids on local brews, chiefs being sacked for consuming the same and street protests by mothers and wives of drinkers which he says have become notorious. He then goes on to plead "are these reactions against alcoholism or the home industry? Do these people really know what they are doing? Would someone ple"se draw the line?"

The writer decries the clear animosity against locally manufactured alcohol even as he insists that "we need alcohol and we cannot continue relying on importing it to satisfy our basic demand for it." More is yet to come: "Indeed, left on it's own alcohol holds great potential for industrialisation in Kenya, and is one industry that Kenyans can easily own and excel in." Or, "but the most compelling reason for us to develop our own alcoholic beverages is that our people are spending a lot of money on alcohol, rivaling and even exceeding food in terms of budgetary allocations. Like food, therefore, Kenya should strive to achieve self-sufficiency in alcohol production. We have a culture of alcohol consumption that can only be supported by a corresponding home-based culture of alcohol production. There is no other way about it."

The final quote I will highlight from anthropologist Ongudu is "our laws on the production and sale of alcohol should be more liberal."

Now to the real situation we need to look at. As far as allowing traditional brews to be manufactured and sold, namely busaa, mnazi, and muratina as well as repealing the 'chang'aa prohibition act' my thoughts on this are well known go ahead - legalise. The way the situation stands now only leads to driving the trade underground with the resultant crime syndicates as well as unnecessary deaths accruing from drinking adulterated liquor.

Saying that our laws should be more liberal on the production and sale of alcoholic beverages makes me pose the question how much more liberal should they be and to achieve what purpose?

After all alcohol is being sold in kiosks, on the streets by hawkers alongside cigarettes and sweets, in bars to kids in full school uniform and at functions for young people which are sponsored by the self-same manufacturers.

Advertisements for alcohol are almost completely unethical with nobody to regulate them and it is probably belief in these ads that has led Ongudu to wail that "we need alcohol!" even as he goes on to compare it with our need for food.

Who says we need alcohol? Would we suffer if we did not drink alcohol and what then of the thousands upon thousands of Kenyans who do not drink alcohol by choice? Are they unhappy fools, weaklings or failures and social misfits? Why don't they need alcohol?

We need to be self-sufficient to meet our needs as we spend even more on it than on food and it is our culture, our heritage. Was it our culture and heritage to have 13 year old boys drinking and then causing chaos all over the place? Did we have 16 to 18 year olds binge-drinking before getting young girls also drunk before gang raping them?

Yet can we blame the youth with the kind of role model ideal we give them? Swimming officials seducing babies with alcohol, teachers drinking with their students before sleeping with them and yet no action is taken against them. No wonder then that school boys see nothing wrong in raiding a girls school and raping as many hapless and helpless girls as they can get their hands on?

Can you for a minute look at your mother, or sister, daughter or aunt or you wife and imagine a whole drunken gang forcing and tearing themselves into her as she screams and screams and screams…

On Kenyatta Day during his speech, President Mwai Kibaki finally threw in a line about alcohol and other drug misuse. Though this was hurriedly covered over by the inevitable warning over HIV/AIDS and other issues it was at least a tiny step and the first which the President has made in admitting that a problem did indeed exist.

But this is light years away from a national policy on alcohol which is sorely needed to govern the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol in Kenya.

For we cannot continue regarding alcohol as a social beverage but need to begin seeing and treating it for what it actually is - a mood altering drug capable of causing addiction and which has drug abuse potential.

Indeed alcohol is Kenya's number one drug problem and it is a problem that is right on track and progressing nicely to soon bring this nation to it's knees. We are no different from the industrialised nations where this has almost happened. Thus thinking we can make the same mistakes, travel the same road with a different outcome is in a word - insanity.

The choice of whether or not to use alcohol as indeed any other drug, will always remain a highly personal and individual one. However it should be one made on informed choice which therefore behooves the government to have in place a continuous education and awareness programme in place. This is because though the decision to use is a personal one, the consequences of this use are the cause of horrendous health, economic and social problems in Kenya.

These costs are picked up by not only the tax-payer but even those living below the poverty level who often pay the ultimate price with their lives in alcohol abuse or misuse related incidents.

This policy will have to look at new strategies to limit the extensive damage caused to the nation by the drug alcohol with the main weapon in this arsenal being prevention.

Awareness has been left totally in the hands of the manufacturers in the form of their advertising campaigns which has led to a whole generation of Kenyans who have grown up believing that alcohol is an essential, normal and necessary part of a happy and successful life. They honestly believe weaned as they are on carefully and craftily crafted ads with slogans like "baada kazi burudika pumzika na X" (after work enjoy, relax with brand X), that they cannot live happily without alcohol. As Ongudu aptly put it "we need alcohol."

The new policy has to look at availability and access issues, which range from the minimum drinking age, (should it be revised upwards to 21) operating hours for bars, pricing to more critical ones like packaging. For instance do we allow the little sachets or mini-packs as they are known which allow school children for as little as Kshs. 10 to not only afford potent liquor, but to be able to easily transport and conceal it.

Warning labels on alcoholic beverages, as well as a campaign cautioning on the inherent dangers of careless consumption of alcohol would also be addressed by the policy.

The Division of Health Education, Ministry of Health mission statement in it's National Health Communication Strategy 1999 - 2010' reads: "the Division of Health Education (DHE) in partnership with other government ministries/departments, donors, non-gorvernmental organisations, private sector and the general public, are committed to contribute to the achievement and sustainability of good health by all Kenyans through systematic well-planned, and innovative health communication interventions."

It defines Health Communication (HC) as "the use of innovative communication techniques to reach defined audiences to inform, persuade, motivate and encourage them to adopt health promoting behaviours."

To this end as far as alcohol abuse is concerned, the papers communication objectives for users are to increase public knowledge on the dangers of drugs and to assist users to stop through public intervention. For policy makers: increase their knowledge as well as that of opinion leaders on the consequences of drug abuse and misuse while encouraging them to speak out against the same.

The general public too are not left out as the paper states that their knowledge should be increased on the serious consequences of drug abuse and misuse while enhancing the teamwork approach toward prevention and control of drug abuse. Is any of this being implemented?

Indeed who is aware of it? The envisaged policy would put together in one document the crazy patchwork of legislation and strategy papers, recommendations of various task forces and proposals which currently abound and are scattered uselessly in dozens of offices.

It would look at penalties for drunk driving after having set legal limits and putting into effect capacity legal and physical to test and enforce this legislation. Currently what is the criteria for declaring a Kenyan DUI? (Driving Under the Influence). What would be the determining factor that I was drunk? I do not think that the Kenyan police have a legal criteria for arresting somebody for drunk driving.

This would also allow testing of anybody brought into the casualty departments of the hospitals or into clinics after accidents or violence (domestic or otherwise) to be tested to see if they were over the limit. It would also allow where there was thought to be a need for testing of those brought into police stations on various charges to again gauge whether they were over the limit. This knowledge would guide charges against offenders as well as enabling the identifying of repeat offenders so that appropriate action could be taken.

Treatment and rehabilitation issues should in regard of current scientific evidence and new positions which regard alcoholism as a disease, be clarified and guidelines issued on the criteria for starting and running of these centers. A 13 man task force set up last year by the Director of Medical Services, seems to have ran out of steam.

I conclude with selected quotes from the speech during the foundation laying ceremony at the Kisumu Brewery on 6th August, 1980 made by the recently retired President Daniel Toroitich arap Moi. "I fully recognise that after a hard days work, a beer or two may sensibly be regarded as a well-earned refreshment."

"Any modest intake of drink, for pleasure or for courtesy, may do no harm. But we cannot afford sympathy now for the man who looks upon drinking as a means of escape from his obligations and duty."

Note the former president's sentiments - "a beer or two". And this is where Kenyans come a cropper. For we do not have a drinking culture, but a drinking 'sub-culture' where our drinking habits have deviated from the norm to form its own class which in turn regards its' drinking mode as normal.

Alcohol is commonly measured in units which provides a baseline as different drinks come in various quantities and strengths. So taking an example, one bottle of Tusker beer has 4.2% alc. (500ml. X 4.2)/1000 = 2.1 units of alcohol.

As the recommended daily units for men is 4 with 2 units for women in terms of Tusker Lager then, this works out to a maximum daily recommended intake of two Tuskers for men and one for women. No wonder the manufacturers only talk about "overconsumption" being bad for you without saying how much. Their job is to get you to drink as much alcohol as you can, period!

We must begin to accept that alcohol misuse and abuse as well as alcoholism are public health problems that need to be tackled by cooperation from the whole community.

As a developing country, funds are not always easy to come by but as a start various taxes raised from the manufacturers of these alcoholic beverages can be utilised. But more importantly we need to recognise the need to act. An alcoholic can only begin to recover by abandoning denial and so too the Kenyan society can begin its recovery by throwing away its' cloak of denial.

With alcohol whether you do this sooner or later is up to you - only one thing is certain though and that is you either do come out of denial or perish. Remember, the sun does not rise!.

David Ogot is a freelance journalist/producer with personal experience in alcoholism. He can be reached at goinghomedotcom@yahoo.com Website: www.goinghomekenya.org

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