Develop policies that discourage excessive alcohol consumption

I am a Muslim, and hence a teetotaler by choice. Islam outlaws imbibing of intoxicants in whatever quantity, of whatever type. Although recognising some benefits of alcohol, the Koran forbids it on grounds that its harmful effects far exceed the benefits. It then condemns intoxicants as an abomination of Satan’s handiwork that must be shunned. In Islam, intoxicants by definition include alcohol and other substances such as khat and drugs that induce a state of intoxication, functional mood disorders and psychosis.

President Uhuru Kenyatta this week came out fighting to save lives of people in his Mt Kenya region devastated by alcoholism. He accused those selling ‘illicit’ drinks as people ‘licensed to kill’ and demanded their licences be cancelled. He directed those officers failing to eliminate these brews in their respective areas be summarily dismissed. A visibly agitated president ordered MPs from the region and his administration to get all ‘second generation alcoholic drinks’ off the shelves and shut the drinking dens.