When a war council rationed beer in Nairobi

Kenya Breweries delivery truck that was used in the early 1920s [File]

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has is causing scarcity of some basic commodities which brings back memories of the World War II which devastated lives in East Africa and left thousands of colonial settler’s throats parched.

At the height of WW2, even after the War Council introduced rationing of beer and limiting a soldier to two bottles a day, there still wasn’t enough drink for thousands of thirsty throats. The dominant brewer then, East African Breweries Limited, instructed its staff to work in shifts but the demand was too much.

Michael Blundell reminisces in his memoirs: A Love Affair With The Sun: A memoir of Seventy Years in Kenya that alcohol was a great communicator as there was no radio, cinema or television and newspaper came from London once a week. Letters and magazines arrived once a month from the United Kingdom and… so much social life centred around a quiet drink at the local club or at home.

Blundell, who later became EABL chair was distressed that civilians could only go to clubs for their favourite drink once a month, and in most cases, had to walk as there was no fuel for their vehicles owing to the war. So severe was the scarcity of beer that at one point, the War Council in Nairobi convened an emergency committee to decide how much beer civilians and soldiers would have. At the time economic recession was real and hotels were being auctioned while farmers were sold a bag of maize for Sh3.50 and a heifer could be bought from a roadside auction at Sh6.

Amid these hardships, South African Breweries sought to have a foothold in Kenya and flaunted what was at the time seen as an obscene offer of £60,000 to buy Kenya Breweries as it was known then but the board did not consider the matter seriously and it died off.

Also, a Bristol firm, Georges had sent some scouts to Kenya to explore the idea of buying and then merging both EABL and Tailor and Company. But they were beaten by Ind Coope & Allsopp who snapped up 49 per cent of the Taylor and Company in May 1948.

But when things improved, in 1952, EABL too dreamed of exporting Tusker to Asia but when its sales manager Brian Hobson went on market research, he concluded that it was difficult to dislodge German and Australian beers.

This year, as EABL mark a century, it is doing so against the backdrop of a European war whose ripple effects are not likely to impact the supply of malt from Europe like in 1930s, when the brewer relied on European imports. Today, barley is grown locally.