Illicit brews are not going anywhere, so let us embrace them

Recent articles in the press indicate that the so-called illicit brews are back (e.g. Central Kenya Leaders to Meet Interior CS Nkaissery over Return of Killer Brews, local daily, February 7, 2016). These stories and a recent visit to my village have convinced me that these drinks are not going anywhere anytime soon. There is therefore need for us to revisit the current policy towards these brews.

The  war on ‘illicit brews’ presents an interesting study in the policy dilemmas associated with controlling drunkenness - and its associated social problems, promoting local entrepreneurship and promoting equality. The current policy has instead focused on the first, while ignoring the second and the third aspects of local brews.

The political focus on drunkenness is understandable: the loss of economic and social productivity has been recently dramatized through demonstrations by women spouses in parts of Kenya. So from this point, the case for stamping out drunkenness is compelling.

On the other hand though – and this point does not seem to have been canvassed by policy makers – many of these distillers are budding entrepreneurs who have mastered the skill of making alcohol. The mastery of this skill should be cause for optimism for a country that seeks to entrench an entrepreneurial culture as a path to social and economic progress. We have only recently proudly hosted the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kenya, which was opened by none other than Mr Barack Obama, President of the United States of America.

We need to embrace African traditional brewing – whether of busaa or chang’aa or muratina- as nascent technologies for development of an African beer and spirit industry. We need to ponder how we can convert this presently dangerous industry into a healthy thriving export one. We should ask ourselves how, from these traditional origins, we can come up with a Kenyan Vodka.

The world famous brews which some of us proudly partake of, did not just happen. They started from not so dissimilar origins and were nurtured to become world class beaters. The Swahili say ukiviona vyaelea, vimeundwa.

The history of Konyagi, a Tanzanian whiskey, is here instructive. Individual disbursed distillers, akin to Kenya’s illicit brewers, were invited to sell their brew to Tanzanian Distilleries Ltd - which further purified and branded it - for both domestic and export consumption. In Russia, Vodka was initially made from individual distillers, employing crude technologies. These were associated with great drunkenness – just like what we are witnessing in Kenya – leading the Russian state to reduce the number of distilleries and finally, establish a state monopoly which then purified it and standardized it to what it is today. These two examples not only illustrate the dangers of uncontrolled brewing, but also offer a way out of the morass associated with illicit liquor brewing and drinking today.

A policy environment that is more favorable to controlled brewing of traditional liquors - besides the economic benefits - is also likely to contribute to a more equitable distribution of ownership of opportunity.  While a number of the distillers might have grown rich over the years, it would not be inaccurate to say that majority of them are poor people trying to get ahead in life. So the characterization of their distilleries as “illicit” necessarily privileges those of the bigger wealthier entrepreneurs – many of which are also foreign.

Again, this is not unique to Kenya. Struggle between the nobility and the gentry over ownership of distilleries also marked the history of Vodka production in Russia and Poland. Ultimately, the nobility triumphed through legislative transfer of distilleries to themselves. This transfer conferred great wealth in the hands of the nobility against the gentry – a situation we would like to avoid in Kenya.

The policy argument I am advancing also provides equality of opportunity for drinking clean and affordable alcohol. The current policy privileges one class over another in drinking, but it needs to be said that it is not the preserve of the elite to drink, nor is drunkenness respectful of class. The current campaign against illicit brews focuses on brews consumed by the poor while ignoring the problem of drunkenness in general. The resources currently being expended to destroy the budding traditional liquor industry needs to instead be put towards nurturing this nascent industry as a source of opportunity, promoting clean and responsible drinking and weaning addicts of alcohol.

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