Failed Government Officials and Agencies…..

President’s Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive on cracking down on illicit and deadly alcohol has entered its third week, albeit muted action far from the eerie that the process began with. Exuberant politicians and Kenyans joined hands in this ‘noble cause’, and dealers in alcohol, especially in the president’s backyard have borne the brunt. Both legal and illegal dealers in the alcohol industry have been on the receiving end, as the mob mentality in the hands of politicians and Kenyans has turned the judge, prosecutor and executioner! Simply put, the rule of jungle has turned the law and looting, destruction of property and all sorts of malice is in the air, all in the name of illicit brews-crackdown. The president’s directive is sadly doing the very job that government officials and agencies should be doing, but have miserably failed in.

Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), police officers and government administrators should take the flack for the illicit brews quagmire that we find ourselves in. Dens that prepare cheap and illegal brews and alcohol brands are all over the country. From the illicit chang’aa dealers hidden in far-flung villages and slums to a brand of fearless Kenyans who are busy sealing deadly concoctionsstamped with the KEBS’ stickers right in the centre of Nairobi, things are simply out of hand.  Corruption and compromise are the rules of this game, otherwise, nothing explains how illegal dealers prepare these lethal brews and even stamp the counterfeits KEBS stickers, fearless of the law and its enforcers.  The physical locations and owners of these factories are clearly known to government officials and the business is known, yet they are free to play in the dangerous game that culminates in the loss of Kenyan lives, physical disabilities and loss of economically-productive Kenyans. Only when does the president issue a directive, that the police officers, KEBS officials and other relevant government administrators come out guns blazing to conduct crackdowns. The question begs, do security officers, authorities and Kenya Bureau of Standards waste taxpayers’ money and sleep on their very responsibilities? Yes that is what happens. 

 

Back in my home village in Makueni County, chiefs and police officers making their way into the village chang’aa dens is such a norm! The mighty boots of the government simply go for kitu kidogo and alas, the village mafias who brew chang’aa are immune to the law. Luckily, no death from these dens has ever been documented but that is no reason to tolerate illicit breweries across Kenya. Fast forward to Nairobi and the hard hit Central region whereby greed for a quick buck drives men and women to use deadly chemicals just to sell to thirsty Kenyans for a few coins. Sadly this turns to be the sip of death, loss of memory of blindness! Yet all these dens blossom under the full glare and knowledge of security officers. Just as in my home village, bribes to the government authorities is the license of death!

Whose business is it to make sure that the illegal and counterfeit KEBS stickers do not ‘legalize’ the deadly spirits and alcohol brands? It is purely a responsibility of Kenyan Bureau of Standards officials and government authorities to arrest the culprits and put an end to the vice. Sadly, they all turn a blind eye to this vice. We simply pay these men and women to sleep on their job and only wake up from the self-induced sleep when President Uhuru issues directives to drive illegal alcohol dealers out of town. Yes, KEBS, police officers and relevant government authorities simply do not perform their job in the war on illicit and deadly alcohol and brews. Instead of issuing a countrywide crackdown, President Uhuru should have sent the responsible officials packing. The work of Hon Ferdinand Waititu, Hon Moses Kuria and their fellow legislators is in the making of laws to run this country, but not leading panga-welding youths to run down illegal and legal alcohol dealers and joints.

The society takes its share of the blame too. Why do we let our family members, relatives and friends to prepare and sell illegal and deadly brews in the name of business? Why do we always wail loudest when our brothers and sisters die or are permanently incapacitated by these deadly concoctions? Why has alcohol been normalized in our villages and cities? Every weekend, our town streets are full of incoherent and intoxicated Kenyans all due to our love for the bottle! Our villages are always never short of Kenyans drunk from cheap and deadly chang’aa. It has become a norm! All manner of excuses are thrown into the air to justify why Kenyans rot in alcoholism. Unemployment has been the most misused reason!!

Instead of solely clapping at President Uhuru for his directive on the illicit brew crackdown, we ought to ask questions on why the relevant institutions never perform their constitutional duties. We should also ask why our society has disregarded its moral duty! The jungle law and the reckless impunity at which legal alcohol dealers have been visited by unruly Kenyans and politicians, under the pretext of fighting illegal and deadly inebriants can never be the solution to the alcoholism problem bedeviling our society. Otherwise, Kenyans will keep dying from these deadly concoctions every other year.