By MOSES MICHIRA
Teachers Paul Toroitich and John Kwambai shared a drink one Tuesday morning during the August holidays.
Toroitich died at 1pm the same day while his colleague was admitted to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret. His vision was blurred and he vomited excessively.
The pair was among hundreds of alcohol-lovers affected by alcoholic poisoning, the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse Authority (Nacada) reports in retrospect, in the most-detailed assessment yet of the quality of alcoholic drinks consumed in Kenya. Lack of co-ordination between the different arms of Government and the deeply inculcated corruption abet the production and marketing of the lethal drinks, which Toroitich and hundreds of others have fallen victim to.
Several surveys commissioned by Nacada have returned shocking details about the quality of the alcoholic drinks in the market, some found to be too toxic for human consumption owing to high content of lead.
The heavy metal is known as a leading cause of kidney damage and even a breakdown of the central nervous system. Known symptoms for lead poisoning include seizures and low sperm count among men.
A drink produced in Kisumu, for instance, was found to contain lead levels that were nearly three-fold the maximum allowed, with an alcoholic content of 24 per cent against 40 per cent indicated on its package.
The brand, which Toroitich had taken together with a Mr Robert Kosgei and one Michael Abdalla, contained more than double the maximum amounts of permitted lead content. Kosgei and Abdalla also died.
Ideally, food for human consumption should not contain any traces of lead, but there are minute proportions that do not pose grave danger if accidentally consumed. Unfortunately, the human body does not have the capacity to get it out alongside other chemicals. Latest findings of a survey conducted by Nacada in September shows that more than half of the drinks in the market were substandard; the agency’s chairman John Mututho reported the failure rate at 52 per cent.
Most of the condemned drinks were packed and marketed as opaque beer spirit, whose recommended alcohol content should range between 2.5 and 6 per cent, while one sample contained 12.8 per cent.
Opaque beer spirit is the type of alcohol that was responsible for 13 deaths reported in Mbeere South District in August last year.
Purity Wawira Nyaga, the seller, was arrested and charged for murder of the 13. The deaths prompted a major mop-up of alcoholic drinks from the area, in the predictable knee-jerk reactionary ways of the State.
Most drinks netted were found to be short of the Kenyan specifications, including plastic packaging at a time when only glass bottles were permitted. Several hard drinks were found to be outright rip-offs to the consumers because their alcoholic content indicated on the label had been exaggerated by up to double, according to the official documents we have obtained copies of.
A technician attached to the department of Government Chemist told The Standard on Saturday: “There is a great danger when products in the market contain harmful products, it is procedure that they are immediately withdrawn.” The technician has been involved in the testing of the condemned alcoholic drinks. Typically, analysis at the government chemist is done to determine the levels of ethanol, methanol, dissolved solids and any other foreign materials contained in alcoholic drinks.
