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Wedded to the devil in the drink L
By Renson Mnyamwezi
Love for illicit brews is a common attribute among the Taita of Coast Province. Many of the men are known to have a strong inclination towards excessive and uncontrolled drinking often with tragic consequences.A retired civil servant recently attempted to commit suicide after losing Sh20,000, his pension arrears, while on a drinking spree in Wundanyi town.
In another incident an assistant chief was retired in the public interest owing to drunkenness. The officer had soiled himself with urine and diarrhoea in public after consuming a popular brew made from millet.
Those who drunk the brew had their trousers tied below the knees with strings to prevent any mess from leaking out just in case an attack of diarrhoea overwhelmed them.
Even teachers, who are expected to be role models in the society, are not spared from this vice. Some are known to carry with them illicit brews that they reportedly sip in between lessons at school.
“Our men are notorious drunkards such that you will find that they are the majority in mnazi drinking dens in Mombasa,” says Silviah Mlegwah, a local.
She says some Taita men working in Mombasa have abandoned their families back home after being enslaved by mnazi.
“Some of the local men are lazy slobs who prefer spending the whole day idling around brew dens instead of working,” says Mlegwah.
The district is rife with tales of men who have come to ruin owing to alcoholism.
In 2006, eight members of the one family perished after drinking what was suspected to be a poisoned local brew in Sagala, Voi division.
And in another incident two brothers died while several other people were taken seriously ill after imbibing a contaminated brew in Mwatate division’s Bura location.
This year, two middle-aged men died as a result of excessive drinking in Mwatate and Wundanyi divisions.
Some of the illicit brews are mixed with all manner of ingredients to accelerate the fermentation process and increase their potency. They include chloroquine, bicarbonate powder and formalin, which is usually used in the preservation of dead bodies in mortuaries.
Others use non-conventional means to increase the drink’s potency and attract clients. In a shocking incident, police recently recovered a pair of a woman’s underwear from a can of illicit brew seized from a local brewer. It is believed that such ‘additions’ have magical powers to lure more customers.
Other items used as charms include used sanitary pads and bras that are also put in the brews which consumers drink oblivious of its unhygienic preparation.
This soft spot for alcohol affects all levels of the society and not just the poor. It is alleged that the majority of local post-independence leaders spent most of their time drinking at the expense of advancing the interests of their community.
A story is told that whenever prominent local leaders went to State House to present their community’s problems during Jomo Kenyatta’s presidency, they would get so drunk on free tipple they would forget the mission that took them there.
Kenyatta is said to have had a great liking for the good-natured Taitas, who are reported to have sheltered him during the freedom struggle.
Though history has it that the Taitas were among the first converts to Christianity in Kenya, their weakness for alcohol never escaped the notice of even the early settlers.
Unable to understand the rate at which the Taita consumed liquor, one of the white settlers is reported to have described the community in the following words:
“Taitas are a very obedient people; but their only fault is their excessive love for alcohol.”
Many are those whose lives have been ruined by alcohol. They have become so dependant on it to the extent that they have become enslaved by the stuff.
High Court Judge Justice Msagha Mbogholi, a Taita, concurs with the white settler’s assertion saying it captures the real character of the local community, especially men.
“The majority of Taita men are addicted to alcohol and cannot effectively participate in any meaningful development pursuits as they’ve been rendered unproductive by excessive drinking,” says Mbogholi.
This excessive drinking has left a trail of misery, broken homes and frustrations in many families because men spend most of their earnings on alcohol.
Many children are out of school for lack of fees and scores of them are loitering in urban centres either as destitute or engage in child labour for lack of parental care.
And if there is a place that urgently needs the services of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), it is Taita where this vice has become the curse of the local population.
Alcohol abuse prevalence is very high in the area, much to the detriment of local development.
Some leaders in the area blame this excessive drinking on erosion of cultural and religious values.
It was taboo in the past for teenagers to even dream of leave alone touch alcohol unlike today when some of them are engaging in what was strictly an adult affair.
In the past people were allowed to take alcohol only after reaching puberty and even then only under the strict supervision by adults to avoid abuse.
But today caution has been thrown to the wind and over-indulgence has become the order of the day in the area.
Persistent police raids in the dens where alcoholics flock for their tipple have not helped much as the vice continues to get worse by the day.
Today it has become the passion for many and they start early in the morning.
The current hard economic times have seen many go for the cheap traditional brew known as mbangara, including locally distilled spirits, instead of beer.
The drink is widely seen as a home breaker with many women complaining that the men are no longer ‘men.’
They claimed their men could not rise to the occasion while others sleep on the cold floor when they are too drunk to climb on the bed.
Many are the men who wobble back home in the wee hours of the night expecting their wives to treat them like Prince Charming.
“We are left alone to fend for our families as our husbands, brothers, fathers and sons disappear into “mbangara” dens all day long,” a woman complained to Crazy Monday.
No wonder, some local women have been protesting to the local provincial administration officials during barazas about their men becoming economically lazy and sexually inactive.
At one time over 300 women in Tausa division confronted a senior administrator demanding to know why the government was allowing rampant sale and consumption of illicit drinks in the area.
The angry women complained to the official that their husbands had become sexually weak and were denying them their conjugal rights.
“We are protesting to you because our husbands have abdicated their marital roles and can no longer father children leave alone satisfying us due to alcoholism,” they told the official.
The women said some men were even unable to identify their own children, as they had become virtually strangers in their own homes since they spent most of their time drinking.
As a result many women are caught between a rock and a hard place.
“Although we’re sexually starved and tempted to engage in adultery we can’t do so owing to the risk of contracting the HIV/Aids,” the women said.
The Wundanyi OCS, Chief Inspector Paul Odede, says women have been flocking to his office to seek assistance in fishing their husbands out of drinking dens.
In some cases men squander their entire salaries and pensions on drinks. Sometimes desperate wives are forced to accompany them to the banks so that they can get some of the money for domestic use before it is re-directed to the drinking dens. And the dens are scattered all over from Masumbesunyi in Wundanyi town to Kariobangi and Soko Ya Zamani in Mwatate town and Mwakingali in Voi town.
While in the past drinking parties were regarded as occasions to socialise or celebrating a special event like a marriage, today they have been turned into occasions for wickedness.
In one incident a teenager died after he slipped and fell on a rock while fleeing from the police who had raided a notorious local brew den known as Riverside.
Last year several police officers were injured when an irate mob attacked them during a crackdown on illicit brews in the area.
Mwatate DO, Wilfred Sigei, who last week seized more than 500 litres of illicit brews called on members of the public to assist in the campaign by volunteering information to the authorities in the spirit of community policing.
The DO, who has given the public his office mobile phone number asked them to either call or send alerts through SMS regarding illicit brews so that dealers can be arrested and prosecuted.
“Excessive drinking has rendered the majority of residents unproductive and the vice must be stamped out,” said the administrator.
He at the same time cautioned bar owners in the area against selling alcohol that does not bear the Kenya Bureau of Standards stamp warning that their licences would be withdrawn.
Mwatate MP Calist Mwatela blames widespread poverty in the district on the fact that most local men loath work and choose to drink instead.
Unauthorised brews have been thriving in the district because law enforcement officer are given a ‘protection’ fee to allow the business.
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