Bunge la Walevi want ‘bei ya pombe’ lowered

Those who love the tipple can recite their highs and rock bottom stories, the points in their journey with alcohol when they had the best experiences or hit their lowest point ever and realised they had to do something about the situation.

These tales, a staple of newly initiated Bunge ya Walevi (Parliament of alcohol users) meetings can be both exciting and harrowing. Some people cry and reveal their fears of how addiction to illicit brews are ruining their lives.

Others recount stories of how their attempts to transition to safer liquor sold in licensed bars have been thwarted by higher, mostly artificially inflated, prices of legal liquor instigated by pubs.

Here, emotions run the gamut, but hardly anyone tries to get a laugh out of these stories except Philip Ogada whose stage name is Jadolo. He is the newly elected Supreme Leader of Chama Cha Walevi Kenya (Party of Alcohol Consumers of Kenya).

“The biggest problem we have with the safe alcohol sold in bars is that some outlets are selling way higher than the Recommended Retail Prices (RRP) as stipulated by manufacturers, making it expensive and out of reach for those who may want to play safe and enjoy their drinks responsibly,” says Jadolo, whose name loosely translates to high priest.

So how did they conceive the idea of Chama cha Walevi and who elected him their Supreme Leader?

Jadolo who hails from a rural setting in Ahero says the idea was conceived during celebrations to commemorate the birthday of his partner in stand-up comedy, Ian Kowitti. The best place to celebrate was Kisumu town and the idea was to make it big with friends in a pub.

“We decided to visit a pub because it was a special occasion, otherwise we wouldn’t have set our feet there. We usually look at bars from far because when you read newspapers you see very low RRP for beer and other alcoholic drinks. It can even be Sh150, but when you get to the bar the price is double that.

“You are never sure whether the bar is affordable or not. Most alcohol consumers fear asking about the prices at the pub before they partake because it looks defeatist. Many people end up staying away or going for cheap liquor that are harmful to their health,” says Jadolo. One of their mutual friends came up with the idea that they start an association of alcohol consumers to fight for fair prices.

“So we cobbled up a group of those interested in seeing responsible use and sale of alcohol to people over 18 years and fair pricing and came up with an assembly. We called it Kikao Cha Walevi (assembly of alcohol users) that elected me as their Supreme Leader,” says Jadolo.

So why Supreme Leader and not Chairman or President of alcohol users? Jadolo says they thought through all those titles, but settled on Supreme Leader because they have heard that both the ‘Peoples President,’ Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta, are comrades.

 He says the association has started the process of reaching out to all adherents in the whole country and has set up social media pages titled ChamachaWalevi on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube to advance its cause.