Whereas I support President Uhuru Kenyatta’s call for all of us to join in the fight against illicit/second generation alcohol and alcoholism, I am not in any way supporting the ambiguity with which we have been allowed to perceive all the other little known brands on the shelves just because they are from ‘small boys’ in the sector.
Aren’t they doing their business genuinely?
What does our law classify as an “illicit brew”?
Even after that is clarified, I do not endorse the events witnessed this past weekend under the pretence of fighting the menace.
An illicitly combined force comprising of area residents and law enforcement agencies were involved in several raids on alcohol selling shops and bars leading to wanton destruction of property and breach of peace.
The fight against counterfeits is well in order but must be conducted within the properly prescribed guidelines under the law; it must be conducted by those trained to bear the responsibility of ensuring law and order is upheld.
The crackdown should be spearheaded by people we (Kenyans) are able to hold accountable if any facets of their work contravene the same law they are supposed to uphold while on duty; not even a single day did Kenyans expect such a life threatening, unwise and desperately conducted swoop from a whole legitimately mandated government with all laws and supporting resources at its disposal.
I personally expected it though, because those responsible for commission of these crimes; licensing, production and distribution of these life endangering liquor are well connected individuals and not you and I.
Therefore, the government deciding to resort to a kamikaze approach of closing down and destroying the poor small-scale traders’ shops and legally acquired stock, was not only illegal and ill-informed but most importantly meant to shield certain individuals.
Our government must have wanted to be seen as working in the public eye though consciously running away from the main culprits. To be precise, the PR exercise was a total failure and the strategist should have been sent parking by now.
No mere ‘eater of ugali’ can comfortably and confidently establish and run such a business; for these “fat cats” to have access to the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and the Kenya Revenue Authority’s (KRA) approval stickers, someone or individuals within the government must be on their constant financial drip.
There’s no way this may have happened for that long, not in the full glare of the government without the perpetrators oiling the wheels and pulleys of corruption.
It’s a well know fact to our leaders that the alcoholism problem facing the Kenyan population (mostly the youth) is as a result of corruption that has thrown us into a state of dissolution; most of our age mates, brothers, sisters and parents have ignorantly found alcohol to be that anaesthesia that sedates to help us calmly live through the pain of watching poverty, hopelessness and lack of basic fundamental needs for our loved ones passed over from one generation to another like a relay button.
We (the youth) have ambitions. We too want to have families- but we have no time to go to school-and if we have, then there’s nothing to write home about the quality of that education.
In North Eastern, Eastern and some parts of Riftvalley for instance, many youth have been systematically taken advantage of unknowingly; the government has given them (young people) guns in the name of warriors to help secure our insecure communities, a function too dangerous to be left in their hands because not only are they untrained but also too young to be engaged in such psychologically distabilizing affairs.
Many raids today are guided solely by emotional individuals especially youth out to vent out their frustrations because they feel the government doesn’t care about them any more.
These youth have no time to concentrate on activities that will shape their future as they are nomads living in never ending fear-and as such the communities have always played catch-up with the rest of the country’s population, a factor that has been politically used to cleverly bar that part of the Kenyan mass from being actively involved in national politics and fighting corruption.
It’s a proven fact world over that only an empowered (informed) citizen can refuse to be used to destroy the branches to the tree of corruption instead of uprooting its buttress roots.
Young people must remind president Uhuru Kenyatta and his government that all these are effects of his agenda, exclusion of young people in the running of his government affairs immediately we overwhelmingly voted him into office- not even the introduction of Alcoblow, muscle tearing and peanuts-paying National Youth Service (NYS) “vibaruas” will sort us out. We shall continue circumventing the law to survive today, waiting for tomorrow to fight the challenges it poses.
We want him (President Uhuru Kenyatta) to weed out all architects and emplementors of grand corruption schemes in his government before the poor refuse to be poor.
We want youth friendly policies that accord us an opportunity to lift ourselves, families and future generations out of desperation and hopelessness.
We want to live abundantly and not to survive.
By Francis Ngira
