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Story and Pix by David Ogot snr. © May 2003
The time has come to stand up and be counted while we still have a country with morals remaining
and children who are going to grow up into responsible adults. But there is one thing which stands
in the way of this and it is booze. Yes alcohol, with one of the biggest culprits being the
seemingly harmless drug called beer.
Yes beer contains alcohol (ethanol) and this is a drug. Whichever way you couch, it turn it,
sugar coat it, there is only one inevitable conclusion - beer contains alcohol, and alcohol is
a mood altering - drug that is why we drink it.
But how it works, why people drink, what is alcoholism and all these other questions are not
in the scope of this article. What we are concerned with here is alcohol and its relation to
sports in Kenya.
When one mentions beer in Kenya, you automatically think of Kenya Breweries Ltd (KBL), who apart
from a short stint where there was some competition from Castle Brewing of South Africa before
(KBL took them over) have enjoyed with relish their role as a monopoly in beer manufacture since
I was a kid.
Recently (May 11) on KTNs 'Yaliyomo Mchezoni' programme scenes which previously
to most Kenyans would be associated with the United States, Britain and other
western countries were aired showing what turned out to be a rugby event right
here in our country. This footage which shocked viewers with scenes of toddlers
being fed beer and adolescent and teenage drunkenness completely offended the
sensitivity of all right thinking Kenyans who viewed them during prime time.
This was followed a few days later (EAS 15.05.03 Face The Facts pg. 8)
by the East African Standard (EAS) in their Face The Facts column with Waithaka
Waihenya published a picture of the kind of dress (undress?) which (right:)
goes hand in hand with this kind of revelry nowadays and this got tongues wagging
again. The accompanying article was aptly entitled " Why have sports
tournaments become shows of drunkenness?" Many of the obviously drunken
youngsters who were interviewed by the Yaliyomo reporter openly confessed
that they were not there for the rugby but for 'socialising' and 'having fun'.
They said they didn't even know how rugby was played and that they did not step
anywhere near the pitch where the matches were going on.
Sometime ago another journalist Clay Muganda writing in the Nation newspaper, did a feature
story on what really goes on during rugby matches. Result - a lot of indignation. Strident
remarks were thrown in his direction as he was accused of exaggerating and outright lying. But
those in the know could vouch for the veracity of his article.
But it soon died down until KTN and the East African Standard, brought it up
again in a more dramatic manner, a manner which belied all denial. There it
was in full glorious colour. The question now should be after this noble effort
by these two reporters, should we again let it die down? Business as usual?
I don't think so. It is time to sit up and look at the role beer plays in sport
and if we really need it. A lot of accidents occur after such functions (some
even fatal) and yet they will always be labeled just that - accidents. Nobody
will bother to say yes there was an accident, but why did it occur? Many
times if you look beyond the superficial replies, you will find a one word answer
- alcohol.
But let me go back in time a bit, well not such a bit (twenty-something years) to the mid seventies.
I am in form three a student of Lenana High School at that time one of the leading rugby playing
schools in the country. There is a rugby match at the RFUEA grounds and as usual Kenya Breweries
had pitched their tents. Beer was being sold at reduced prices (why else were we there?). There
were the girls who hang on too and tried to be as outrageous as we were.
Then there were the 'tough guy' competitions. If you could drink a lot of beer
and 'hold your liquor like a man' you became a prized member of the team when
the competitions began. One of them went like this. There were about six to
ten (depending on how many people were game, nobody wanted to puke) members
in each team. So assuming there were ten on each side for a total of twenty,
each team lined up side by side on opposite sides of a long wooden table.
Twenty bottles of beer and twenty mugs were brought forward and then the beers
were opened with flourish. By this time drunken spectators of both sexes and
different ages were crowded round the table egging on their teams with often
ribald comments being shouted and received with great guffaws and loud drunken
'unable-to-stop' giggles.
At this point each participant then took up the bottle of beer in front of
him and with almost religious fervor poured it slowly, bottle and mug tilted
at the precise angle so as to produce the least foam (head). The full beer mug
is then placed almost reverently on the table in front of him. The empty beer
bottles were, collected and then all heads turned to look at the 'starter.'
This was the fellow who would signal the 'fun' to begin.
When the 'starter' gave the signal the fellows at the head of the table on
either side would snatch up their mug careful not to spill, as this led to disqualification
and proceed to gulp down the beer as fast as they could. As soon as you emptied
your mug you would up-ended it on top of your head. Of course if it still contained
beer, you would end up not only wet, but also disqualified. As soon as the mug
was resting ignominiously on your head, the guy next to you proceeded - with
the process being repeated until to the accompaniment of roaring cheers from
the 'spectators' the last man placed his empty mug upside down on his head.
The first team to be all standing with empty beer mugs atop there heads were
declared the winners.
As you can see, this process involved drinking a full beer literally in seconds.
But as if this were not enough, usually by the time that bout was through, another
team had organised themselves to take on the winning team and by the time they
were finished there would be another set of challengers and if you were in a
constantly winning team you could easily drink four to five beers in a space
of 15 minutes. Not healthy at all. This is what is known as binge drinking and
regularly kills students in the United States of America and other countries.
It simply means you drink more alcohol than your body can get rid of, so your
Blood Alcohol Level (BAL) keeps rising until you go into a coma so deep that
even involuntary body processes like breathing simply stop, and you die!
Fast forward back to the present. What has changed? Nothing! Maybe the dressing
has become more daring? But do these girls arrive dressed like the one above?
You can bet you last shilling that they don't. They come properly covered. My
point by the way is if you don't have the guts to wear it through town, walk
through the streets, take a bus etc., it means you know it is wrong so why bother?
But that is not the main issue. The fact that is twenty-something years later from my time, nothing
seems to have changed. Reason? Rugby is one sport synonymous with the drinking of alcohol
especially beer. Maybe it is the macho, wild nature of the game, that also encourages wild
drinking. But more likely it is the beer tents and cheap beer, booming music and nobody caring who
does what. But beer, beer and more beer.
At the same time everywhere you turn are the bright yellow and black colour
combination of the 'Tusker' beer brand. From the goal posts, to billboards,
to T-shirts, caps, bags, umbrellas, and off course - bottles. What impression
does a child get attending sporting events and being constantly inundated by
these colors and surrounded by this bacchanalian behavior? Obviously the child
learns to say Tusker baridi (cold Tusker) before they can say Tuskegee
University.
They can't wait to 'join in the fun' and perceive it as normal behaviour for
everywhere they go, football (even the team Tusker) to now cricket is beer sponsored
and drank. Cricket is a relatively new phenomenon in Kenya made popular by the
national teams constant David and Goliath antics against world class competition.
And no sooner did this game start catching the Kenyan publics' fancy, than KBL
jumped in with sponsorship and calling them 'our boys'.
So what is it with the sponsorship business anyway? Advertising - simple and
short. They give out funds and they want their moneys worth and recognition
and promotion of their products. And KBL has an advertising budget that would
make our head turn. Hundreds of millions. All fair and square so far. Unfortunately
sport is open to everybody, young and old. Unlike voting or getting a driving
licence etc toddlers to grandparents all enjoy sports. And when toddlers grow
up associating sports with beer and beer drinking, then we cannot turn around
and blame them for behaving as they do. Like Pavlov and his mice, they are merely
responding appropriately to the relevant stimuli.
The onus lies therefore squarely with us. As parents who sire these children and do everything
for them to start them off in life well we are consequently the first line of defense for them
as they grow up.
When Waithaka Waihenya says in his article (pictured above) that the National Coordinator, National
Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA) as he watched the 'Yaliyomo' programme
"must have been wishing for the ground to open up and swallow him" he completely misses
this point. It is us the parents of these children who must act first. If you find a group of
louts attacking your child are you going to wait for the police, or the government, or Mr. Kaguthi?
Of course not. I can picture you launching tooth and claw into the layabouts.
Yet the breweries regularly drug your child as you stand by complacently, nay even sometimes
participating giving alcohol to 'taste' or drink with him her. This I can
only put down ignorance what is capable of doing and indeed does body whether are alcoholic otherwise. But don't blame yourself. too was ignorant
about alcohols' properties, yet drank it copiously for 27 years. could tell in every town where
get cheapest beer 24 hour bars were. properties?
good made me feel - period! Now Grace God, am older, sober wiser.
As parents and Kenyans we have to see all alcohol, even beer - for what it really is. Otherwise
what is the point of immunising your kids, feeding them well, taking out all kinds of insurance
for them from medical to school fees, warning them about drugs but not mentioning alcohol? I would
say this is tantamount to child abuse. Letting them walk into a lethal situation totally
unprepared.
Let other sponsors come foward and they are legion. Recently Unga Holdings
Ltd. the makers of 'Jogoo maizemeal' became the main sponsors of the recently
kicked off Rugby Super Series. With its sponsorship of 2 million Kshs. This
tournament will bring together Kenya's top 100 rugby players. This is being
done with the aim of elevating 15 a side rugby as well as raising officiating
standards to international levels. At the same time it is intended that funds
raised from the tournament are going to be used to develop grassroots rugby
in several areas including Bungoma, Eldoret and Juja. Other sponsors have joined
Unga Holdings Ltd. in this noble venture.
They have opened the way, others should follow. The cheap beer tents and billboards etc
should leave the rugby grounds and indeed the stadia. They belong in bars, where controlling
drinking especially by minors is easier.
Please let us not talk about 'responsible drinking.' This is the language of
the brewers. When they say do not drink to excess - what amount is excess? Have
they ever told us what amount is deemed excess and thus 'irresponsible'? Never.
So let me tell you. For purposes of quantifying amounts drunk, alcohol is measured
in units. Due to different body composition (less water mainly) women then can
drink less units per day than men. The recommended daily intake in units for
men is four while for women it is half that at two units.
So how much is a unit? Let us use a bottle of Tusker as our example as that
is the beer we have been talking about. A bottle of Tusker has 4.2% alc. and
its contents are 500ml (i.e half a liter.) So to calculate the number of units
you multiply alcohol percentage with quantity and divide by one liter. Thus
Tuskers equation becomes (500ml x 4.2)/1,0000 = 2.1 units. From this we can
see that two bottles of Tusker totals 4.2 units of alcohol which is slightly
more than the recommended daily amount. It would be safe to conclude then that
for men recommended number of Tuskers is two bottles and for women - one! Now
tell me when was the last time you saw men drinking two Tuskers and calling
it quits? For that matter how many do you yourself drink? The fact of the matter
is that breweries worldwide not only KBL thrive on 'irresponsible drinkers'
so there is no way they are really serious about wanting people to drink responsibly
- not unless they want to lose most of their ' humongous' profits.
Finally there are those who would cry this article is alarmist. Fine. Todays
child dressed as above, is tomorrow's rape victim, single mother, accident statistic
(road accident, fire accident, binge drinking death) and if very unlucky, alcoholic. That is
when your true suffering will really begin. So why wait? Let us wake up as parents
and realise beer is a drug and like any other drug its use has consequences.
Learn about this drug, advice you children accordingly and if they have to drink,
let them start when they are more mature preferably after 21 years of age. This
is because the earlier one starts drinking before the body has fully developed,
the harsher the consequences.
As parents and responsible Kenyans let us join hands and get booze away from
sports. Let our kids grow up knowing the truth - booze and sports do not mix!
Let us encourage companies like Unga Holdings Ltd. to come in and take over
the mantle. If we don't do this, then you will spend the early years doing everything
possible to keep your child safe, then they will be poisoned as you stand by
idly watching and if they survive you will learn what the terms 'rehab', 'AA',
'recovery', 'abstinence', 'relapse' and a host of others like 'despair', 'helplessness'
and 'anguish!' mean.
Alcohol has its place, for those who want it. But not the sports field or stadia.
It is your duty, for your children. In days not so long gone in most African
traditions the children were communal. They belonged to the village. Right now
Kenya is our village, so these are our children. Instead of the usual slogans
the brewers would have us chant; let us chant a new one with this new dawn.
"Kenya My Village - The Children, My Children - MILELE!"
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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