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The People Daily May 2003

I am writing this letter to contribute to the ongoing debate to whether or not to legalise chang'aa. I am also doing so with a lot of emotions considering that one point has been constantly overlooked.

Whether one is drinking busaa, mnazi, chang'aa, or the other stuff, the active ingredient here is ethanol. That is what makes you high or aire as the young are wont to say. This is what alters the mood and gives the high and makes us able to socialise, or forget, or avoid, or celebrate or mourn or whatever else the reason people use to justify their drinking of alcoholic bevarages.

Thus, what is overlooked when talking about the so called "illicit brews" is that the licit ones are equally lethal. In fact, in Kenya right now there are several brands of alcohol manufactured by unscrupulous people and which are lethal to the welfare and health of Kenyans.

The whole issue of mini-packs will need to be looked at again as we will have to look at the availability of alcohol to the youth as a whole again. peer preassure, or being macho are the main reasons why young people drink.

Young people now also drink a lot because it is accesible, affordable and available. Nobody queries young people entering a bar or drinking in public when they are so obviously underage. Parents seem to have abdicated their role as well (or is it because these parents are the hard drinkers of my generation and therefore see nothing wrong with drinking?)

And where there is heavy drug use, there is no peace. Even the babies nappies will be stolen from the washing lines for after all mini-packs start as cheap as Shs. 10. I stay in Langata and already there is a constant string of petty break ins and dogs don't bark which means the people breaking in are known and we including the police know it is our own kids doing the break ins and stealing TVs and videos.

In the evenings they waylay ladies coming in after dark and steal their purses. yet they are to be seen smoking bhang and drinking mini-packs sold to them from neighbourhood kiosks some even are found lying by the roadside completely asleep in the hot sun after drinking alcohol.

Come on let us wake up and stop pretending. Let us tackle the problem of alcohol abuse by our youth. Otherwise as every recovering alcohol will tell you, the ultimate, inevitable end is jail, mental institution, or death!

David Ogot,
Recovering alcoholic
Nairobi.

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