Welcome to alcohol-free island that is Kijabe town

A section of Kijabe Missionary centre in Limuru where alcohol businesses rarely survive. [Photo: David Njaaga/Standard]

For as long as many a resident can remember, there have been few or no alcohol and cigarette fumes in this area.

Smack in the middle of Kiambu, Central Kenya, which has become one big beer and spirit drinking belt with disastrous results, Kijabe is an island of sorts.

Against all odds,  Kijabe town  still remains a "sober' zone where majority of the locals have come to embrace religion.

Situated in the cool and heavily forested county, it is a town where the local liquor licensing board does not get a single cent, nor do the police carry out raids on illicit brews, due to lack of establishments that harbour bars.

Many associate Kijabe town with the African Inland Church’s Kijabe mission hospital, which can be credited for the booming and fast-expanding town that seems to be tucked away in the deep woods.

Every corner

On entering the town, one cannot help but notice that there are no idle youths waiting for handouts from well-wishers, but numerous churches at every corner one turns.

John Manji is a reformed alcoholic and a driver at the AIC Kijabe hospital matatu terminus who quit drinking a month ago. He holds President Uhuru Kenyatta’s fight against illicit brew in high regard as he says it has helped him transform into a better man.

“Whenever I needed a drink, I was forced to get out of town and go to Gachiengo, which is on the highway on your way to Kijabe. I would drink and  stagger my way back to Kijabe,” confides Mr Manji.

Manji says the drinking affected his work as he could not make it on time.But nowadays, he says, he is able to wake up early and even spare time for tea.

Manji says for one to enjoy something as simple as a puff, one needs to get out of town and once they are done puffing away, they can make their way back.

“It is not only drinkers who have to get out of town in order to get their quick fix, but also smokers. My colleagues who are also drivers and touts have to get into one of the cars out of town to smoke, or drink, then make their way back and resume their duties,” Manji says.

He says the director in charge of the matatu terminus has powers to stop one’s vehicle from operating within the town if the driver or conductor is found to be drinking or smoking in the area.

“Many of our clients are patients from Kijabe hospital, thus we cannot afford to drink or smoke around them. The one in charge of the terminus can also fine you if found to be engaging in such vices,” adds Manji.

Area Chief Njoroge Mungai says Kijabe town is like an island of sorts, because as his counterparts in other parts of the country fight the second-generation liquor menace, he is busy attending to other issues since there are no pubs in the area.

“The fight by the Government against illicit brews is justified and the aftermath is being felt even here in Kijabe. The good thing however is that most of the youths here are not drinkers, thanks to the strong Christian background which acts as the backbone of the entire town,” said Mr Mungai.

According to the chief, the heavy missionary culture in the area is to thank for the good morals among the youth, which have trickled down to their children.

Few pints

“Some people have tried to start pub businesses in the area but they never flourish. It is not that it is illegal or anything, but the residents are busy with other activities such as farming,” said Mungai.

He explained that for a brief period, there was a bar in the town but patrons would always get caught up in brawls after downing a few pints.

He talks of an incident where the drinkers raided a now-defunct police post and this led to the closure of the bar.

“There used to be a bar a few metres from the AIC Kijabe hospital and a section of the youth would go drink there. Some of them would however get too drunk and one day they even went as far as attacking a police post that used to be in the area. With time, both the bar and police post were closed down and that was the last of any pub here,” said Chief Mungai.

Mungai said those in the town are so bound by Christian values that lodgings in the area only accommodate couples and rarely lovers seeking to "scratch an itch".

The chief said unemployment in the area is haunting the youth and, apart from the local printing press that occasionally contracts the youth, there is not much for them to do and this may lure them to crime.

"Many of the youths are either boda boda riders or farmers, who are now facing a challenge from monkeys destroying their crops,” said the chief.