'That's PR, nobody cares': Mututho faults govt over counterfeit alcohol crackdown

Former National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) chairman John Mututho during an interview at Spice FM, Wednesday, November 4. [Screengrab]

Gaps in Kenya's alcohol-control framework are leaving consumers exposed to counterfeit and unsafe drinks, despite laws requiring safeguards on product quality and safety.

Former National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) chairman John Mututho has blamed the growing counterfeit alcohol menace on policy and regulatory failures, accusing the government of relying on public relations crackdowns instead of addressing weaknesses in the regulatory framework.

Speaking during an interview on Spice FM on Wednesday, November 4, Mututho questioned the effectiveness of enforcement operations, arguing that arrests and seizures would not resolve the problem without regulations governing the quality and authenticity of alcoholic products.

“That's PR, nobody cares,” he said, arguing that consumers have no reliable way of establishing whether the alcohol they purchase is genuine and safe for consumption.

Mututho's criticism centres on the Alcoholic Drinks Control Act, 2010, commonly known as the Mututho Law, which he helped spearhead.

The law was enacted to regulate the production, sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks, replacing the previous Chang'aa Prohibition Act and Liquor Licensing Act.

Beyond regulating the sale and consumption of alcohol, the legislation seeks to protect consumers from misleading product information, eliminate illicit alcohol trade, including counterfeiting, and prevent the sale of alcohol to people under 18.

Section 68 empowers the Cabinet Secretary responsible for alcohol regulation to make regulations covering product composition, harmful ingredients, testing methods, labelling, packaging and distribution.

The provisions are intended to ensure consumers are not misled about the quality, composition or safety of alcoholic drinks and to prevent products from causing harm.

Mututho, however, said four sets of regulations had been envisaged when he spearheaded the law, covering access to alcohol, quality control and other consumer safeguards.

He maintained that only regulations governing access had been implemented, leaving critical provisions on product quality and safety unaddressed.

The former NACADA chairman called on the government to implement the outstanding regulations, saying consumers should be able to verify alcoholic drinks through matching security features on the bottle, cap and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) excise stamp.

He argued that the KRA stamp alone does not guarantee that a product is genuine or safe, noting that its primary purpose is to indicate payment of excise duty.

KRA has an electronic system for tracking excisable goods and a mobile application, Soma Label, which allows consumers to verify the authenticity of excise stamps on products.

However, verifying a stamp does not establish the chemical composition or safety of the drink inside the bottle.

The distinction is important as counterfeit alcohol can involve the unauthorised use of genuine brands, labels, caps and bottles, including refilling genuine branded containers with illicit products.

The Anti-Counterfeit Authority (ACA) has also identified a wider illicit alcohol problem involving smuggled, substandard, adulterated and unlicensed drinks, which require different forms of verification and enforcement.

In September, the authority told a Senate committee that existing product-tracking systems did not comprehensively cover locally manufactured alcohol, bottling, refilling and domestic distribution.

It proposed a digital authentication system that would allow consumers and enforcement agencies to verify products through unique security identifiers, working alongside existing KRA excise stamps and Kenya Bureau of Standards certification marks.

Mututho also questioned how enforcement agencies handle seized alcohol, particularly the practice of pouring out confiscated products instead of preserving samples for laboratory testing and use as evidence in prosecutions.

He described the illicit alcohol trade as a highly organised criminal network, arguing that arresting individual suspects without dismantling the wider networks would do little to stop the business.

His remarks come amid renewed government efforts to tackle counterfeit and illicit alcohol, with multi-agency operations leading to arrests and seizures across the country.

Between August 20 and September 3, 2026, enforcement teams recovered more than 5,555 suspected counterfeit bottles and approximately 39,580 litres of illicit brew in operations targeting high-risk areas in Nairobi.

In a separate operation on September 15, ACA officers working alongside police seized 8,459 suspected counterfeit alcoholic products valued at approximately Sh2.1 million in Makindu, Makueni County.

The crackdown has also coincided with a decline in government revenue from domestic excise taxes, which largely include duties collected from alcoholic beverages.

KRA's domestic excise collections fell from Sh69.4 billion to Sh61.8 billion in the financial year ending June 2026, representing a decline of Sh7.6 billion, or 10 per cent.

The taxman attributed the decline to counterfeit alcoholic drinks alongside changes in the excise tax structure introduced in December 2024, which reduced the tax burden on beer while increasing duties on spirits.

KRA Commissioner for Tax Research and Analysis Alex Mwangi told a parliamentary committee that lower collections from beer reflected the reduced tax rates, while the spirits category had faced the problem of counterfeit products.

Mututho questioned why the government had not finalised the outstanding regulations, warning that the delays continued to expose consumers to unsafe products.

“How many more Kenyans do we want dead so that you can sign the regulations related to ADCA?” he posed, urging the government to implement the Alcoholic Drinks Control Act instead of allowing the regulations to remain pending.

He also urged consumers to demand proof of authenticity and procurement documents for alcoholic products and seek legal redress where manufacturers' products cause harm.

“I urge Kenyans to demand alcohol procurement documents and sue manufacturers if their drinks make them sick. You deserve to enjoy your drink,” he added.