Let us tackle the illicit brews challenge in a sober manner

The war against consumption of illicit brews has gone horribly wrong – by the end of Friday last week someone had died, a factory had been set on fire and legitimate alcoholic merchandise worth millions of shillings destroyed.

But perhaps the confusion in trying to get a handle on the consumption of illicit brews should have been expected, going by the way the presidential edict was issued.

Stung into action by the findings of a baseline survey on the prevalence of alcoholism in Central Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta summoned all MPs from the region and ordered them to personally take charge of a process to rid the region of illegal alcoholic drinks.

The stunning reaction by MPs and the residents they had mobilised was nothing short of a disaster. The legislators and the vigilante mobs that accompanied them, raided stores that stocked alcohol and in total disregard to the law, destroyed their merchandise and in some cases arrested vendors.

In one incident in Naivasha one person was shot dead, and in a separate incident, about 100 workers escaped death narrowly after the brewery they were working in inexplicably caught fire.

Gun shots were fired in the air putting more lives at risk. Because the vigilante exercise was led by legislators, these illegal actions appeared to have some form of legitimacy—one leader even proclaimed that anyone found drinking would be arrested.

This in a secular nation not governed by religious doctrine. In a way, the public fury at the presence of dens of illicit brews in residential neighbourhoods is understandable.

The dangers posed by drunken louts in areas where children reside have been well documented by those members of the public who have sought help from the police — help they did not get because the authorities had been compromised to ensure these illegal dens thrive.

All too often, revelers have died or gone blind from the consumption of deadly illicit brews laced with dangerous chemicals, and, not surprisingly, such deaths have invited public fury. But the knee-jerk reaction by authorities has been inevitable.

Hurried arrests and prosecutions but once things have quietened down and gone back to normal, the cycle of illicit consumption of these illicit brews resume.

Predictably, the Kenya Bureau of Statistics yesterday issued a list of banned alcoholic beverages even as authorities continued to close illegal drinking dens and bars in many parts of the country.

Their actions will do little to convince Kenyans that it is being done to contain this illegal trade.

More well thought out policies must be formulated and then implemented. The National Authority for the Campaign against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Nacada) has been tasked with giving direction and advising on interventions that help in the fight against drug and alcohol abuse.

However, Nacada has been faulted for failing to live up to its mandate, and has lately been in the news for infighting among its management and board members.

The government has also appeared to send mixed signals about its attempts to discourage the consumption of illicit brews.

For example, it first encouraged the brewing of cheaper unmalted beer for those in the lower income bracket, thereby succeeding in weaning off imbibers from the toxic brews.

But in the 2014/2015 budget, the government inexplicably taxed unmalted drinks, raising their price and moving them beyond the reach of low income alcohol consumers.

Thankfully, in the last budget, the excise duty on unmalted beers was removed. These contradictions do not help in containing the consumption of illicit brews.

The government should not appear to favour those who can afford expensive alcohol and punish those who cannot. It must ensure that even those in the low income bracket who want to consume alcohol have cheaper, legal brands they can buy.

Otherwise, efforts to contain the consumption of illicit brews will be futile. Still, legitimate business should be protected from looters.