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Story and Pix by David Ogot snr. © April 2003
"Within the past four years alone, chang'aa has claimed so many lives and maimed so many
more people, not to mention the trail of wrecked families that it has left along the way."
chang'aa being prepared. These pots are hidden in the bush by a river on the outskirts of Kisumu City
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This quote is an extract from an article written by Maximillia Muninzwa
(EAS 30.04.03) entitled 'Legalising chang'aa wont make the drink less
lethal.' Muninzwa runs through a whole gamut of reasons why legalisng chang'aa
will not solve the problem including "besides turning drinkers into zombies
and wrecking families, chang'aa is associated with a number of health
complications. These range from blurred vision, brain damage, low blood sugar
to hepatitis and heart diseases. It also impairs the economic growth since it
hampers any meaningful production."
The writer concludes by saying "its legality will not stop one from becoming a potential
casualty."
"The government should, therefore, get to the root cause of why men have suddenly turned
to such hopeless drinking without a care in the world. Such a path will be tough and uphill, but
eminently worth while. For not to look at the real problems in the eye is to run the risk of
destroying this whole nation in an instant," the article ends.
'I only drink beer' is a statement commonly heard by those who would justify
their drinking not being problematic. (At one point in my drinking days I too
used this defense.) The fact of the matter is beer contains alcohol and alcohol
is a drug. Beer is a leading cause of road accidents and related deaths, domestic
violence, HIV/AIDS, broken homes, rape, domestic and other violence, disenfranchised
children, brain damage, low blood sugar, liver damage, hepatitis and heart diseases,
wrecked families and deaths.
Do these look like the consequences of drinking chang'aa? Yes. Have I made a mistake and
placed the name of the wrong drink in my letter? No! Beer is a leading cause of all these
calamities mentioned above. Not chang'aa, one hardly hears of this drink killing people in the
rural areas. In fact it is imported into Nairobi for its potency but mainly for its purity. The
fact of the matter is that adulteration is done so as to allow the drinker to get a kick and
leave quickly before the police come as well as obviously added value.
The debate also whether this drink should be made legal or not to me is a moot
point. It is noteworthy here that substitute the word 'banned' with 'prohibited'
as in 'prohibition.' Now that is one great experiment which never worked but
instead succeeded in bringing out a flourishing underworld trade in bootleg
liquor, with the accompanying gangs and their often flamboyant (but lethal)
bosses. By the time the idea was discarded, it had only succeeded in creating
some stinkingly wealthy families who are still thriving, and corrupting all
manner of public officials, starting with the police force.
Today in Kenya this is the same scenario. Show me any estate in town and within 15 minutes
I'll find you a chang'aa den. This shows that the brew is banned on paper only.
When Muninzwa thus concludes that the government has to go into the root cause of "why men
have turned to such hopeless drinking without a care in the world" she should know that when men
and women drink like that it is not because they do not have a care in the world. On the
contrary. But that is not in the scope of this article.
Of more import, is in fact of greatest import but only when put in its correct context is the
last line in her article. "For not to look at the real problems in the eye is to run the risk of
destroying this whole nation in an instant."
'Empty mini-packs thrown into a ditch in a housing estate in Nairobi'
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What are the real problems? The real problems are Kenyans and their drinking
patterns. Kenyans are weaned literally from mothers milk, to beer. Yet the only
education on the drug alcohol comes from the manufacturers ads which tell you
that drinking alcohol will make you sexy, solve your problems, bring you inner
peace, bring out the power hidden in you, something you drink if you really
have to be cool, change your boring life as it helps you meet friends and it
will do all this for - milele.
So what do young people do, they drink! Jumping into the deep end without any
clue how to swim. The real problem is for the government to look at the liquor
licensing act afresh bringing it up to date to face current challenges e.g.
the mini-packs. These sachets which are sold everywhere from kiosks to the streets
and some which content is dubious to say the least, make a complete mockery
of this act. The chang'aa debate as it has been dubbed by the press while
good, should not sidetrack us hear on what is needed.
Some of the main things to be looked into here are the minimum drinking age. This should be
revised upwards to 21 as in many developed countries for it is a scientific fact that growing
brains are extremely sensitive to alcohol and alcohol has very harmful effects on young persons
development. Drinking hours with all the 24 hour joints usually with lodgings upstairs. Sale of
alcohol to minors. Blood Alcohol Level (BAL) testing of drivers, especially of Public Service
Vehicle drivers. Does the country have a in law a legal BAL for one to be declared drunk? Where
do we take our alcoholics i.e. the rehabilitation question? I was privileged to be on a thirteen man task
force set up by the Ministry of Health last year for establishing standards and guidelines for
rehabilitation centers in Kenya. After a very good start this too seems to have fizzled out.
The issue of traditional liquors too is in this equation. Recently Minister Karisa Maitha
asked stated that people should not be arrested for drinking this coastal beverage. Result the
courts are now full of those charged not only with drinking but with women charged with having
been found carrying jerry-cans of the same. This dilemma of what role traditional liquors have
also has to be resolved.
So the real problems to be looked at "in the eye," are a policy on the drug alcohol has to be
mapped out and put into place. So as to drastically reduce the suffering currently caused by
alcohol consumption. All alcohol! The defense of 'I only drink beer' will no longer wash. Remember
the next generation of alcoholics are the Kenyan youngsters starting to drink today.
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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