Trade in cheap lethal liquor is getting more deadly, rampant, popular and competitive all over the country, despite Parliament having passed a Motion three years ago, asking the Government to ban the production, sale and consumption of brews of questionable quality.

And, in fact, the brews have only become more lethal and their effect on the consumers, more destructive. As many poor Kenyans continue to judge the quality of their drink by how portent it is, the peddlers of the deadly concoctions are only too happy, doing everything they can to "improve" their products to meet the growing demand and reap the benefits.

The bid to "improve" the products involves traders turning to an endless list of substances, all of them highly poisonous, to give more strength to the brews. The additives now include fertilisers, sisal juice, alkaline battery content, bhang and formalin, which the anti-drugs authorities refer to by the brutal name of dawa ya maiti (chemical for embalming bodies). The whole nation is hooked and the authorities are aware of it.

In western Kenya, particularly parts of Busia, Kisii Central and Nyamira areas, a lethal brand of changaa is now available and which has been blamed for causing kidney failure and mental problems.

Wherever it has taken root, "there are reports of more mental problems than alcoholism," a member of the National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (Nacada) based at the headquarters in Nairobi, says. The Nacada director is former Nairobi provincial commissioner Joseph Kaguthi.

In Central and Eastern provinces, especially in Murang'a, Nyeri, and Embu districts, another lethal brew, Kumi Kumi, is making many young men in their 20s look twice their age. They will often avoid any hard work because the drink has sapped all the energy and appetite for work.

The drinks come in all sorts of names. They include, Kumi Kumi, changa'a, Ekangara, Sorghum baridi, Mashore, El Nino, Sweet Engineer, Tornado, Tarzan, Saga Mix, Medusa, Kulta Special and International.

Completely changed and deadly

They are highly available and affordable, with prices ranging from Sh10 to Sh25. But they can make users drunk the whole day, if they are not dead. Some retain their old, respected traditional names like busaa, but the contents are completely changed and more deadly. Because most of the drinks are illegal, they are never tested to determine their contents until they cause death and the authorities seize them for tests by the Government Chemist.

Abuse of cheap but lethal alcohol is contributing to increased cases of murder, suicides, road accidents, domestic violence, and even infertility, according to a specialist with the Alcoholics Anonymous group in Nairobi.

It's also a drag on a struggling economy, with inefficient workers and absenteeism costing businesses millions. The Government has promised to wipe out the habit, but it is not easy task. Distilleries have been destroyed in some cases and the sale of the brews outlawed. But such measures have failed.

The Nacada officials say police are compromised by protection fees paid by merchants of killer brews, health authorities have never stepped in and politicians never condemn sale of the brews because their voters use them. The authorities are aware, according to the National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse.

And some of these concoctions kill and maim people across the nation even as tests prove that they are poison being sold across bar counters with or without government license. Often the sellers enjoy protection from authorities.

To compromise the authorities

Data compiled for over a year by Nacada, from all the eight provinces, indicate that the brewers make enough money to compromise the authorities in their local areas.

The agency also indicates that because all these brews are cheap and easily available, children as young as Standard Four pupils buy them. It has been established that more girls than boys are trying these drinks, particularly in Central and Eastern provinces.

"We have evidence that schoolgirls are turning more to alcohol and pupils save Sh10 each, then combine with others to buy minipacks," a Nacada official said.

The two provinces, especially Embu, Murang'a and Nyeri districts, the authorities say, are under the grip of Kumi Kumi, a lethal drink from which merchants make millions of shillings by simply adding water to methanol and selling it to the public.

According to Dr Eric Achoki, an adviser with Nacada in Nairobi, traders in Kumi Kumi buy methanol from the Industrial Area in 20-litre containers at Sh3,500 each. They then dilute it and get 80 of the 20-litre containers. They sell each at Sh800 a jerrican. From an initial investment of Sh3,500, the merchants make at least Sh64,000.

"The traders can sell it at Sh10 or Sh5. They will still make a profit. All they spend is Sh3,500 and jerricans of water," Dr Achoki, a clinical pharmacist and a specialist in chemicals, said.

Methanol is highly toxic. When it gets into the bloodstream, it turns into formalin. The transformation takes place in the liver, kidney and eyes. When it occurs in the eye, the result is "irreversible blindness," Dr Achoki says.

"That is why we often hear of 'hata mkizima taa, tuta endelea (even if you switch off the lights, we shall continue drinking'."

When methanol transforms itself into formalin in the liver, it turns into formic acid. When the acid reaches the lungs, it causes respiratory failure and the user collapses dead instantly."

Manufactured from fruits

In Embu, the two most popular alcoholic drinks, Mashore and Sorghum Baridi, look deceptively healthy. They are cold, without the benefit of refrigeration. It is the poison, methanol, that cools the drinks. Methanol combined with all the ingredients of the drink like sorghum turns into methylated spirit, which is light and cold. On fermentation, the key ingredient of Sorghum Baridi is methylated spirit. That is the poison the users enjoy out of ignorance.

Alcoholism in Central Province and parts of Nairobi is also fed by a string of "wine industries" operating in the Naivasha area.

Wines are supposed to have an alcoholic content ranging between 11-15 per cent. They are supposed to be manufactured from fruits. But the Nacada officials are worried that in Naivasha, "the people who manufacture wine do it without fruits."

Packet labels of the wines from Naivasha indicate that alcohol content is within the prescribed 11-15 per cent range. Analyses by government agencies, however, have shown that alcohol content actually ranges between 40 and 50 per cent. That level of alcohol content is meant for spirits.

The deadly products circulate mostly in Central Province, where the consumption is at an all time high. About three years ago, some 25 people died and several lost their eyesight in Naivasha after taking a local brew. Earlier, some 100 people had died in the Murang'a District after consuming another local brew.

The Ford-People MP for Kangema, Mr John Michuki, asked the Government to ban the sale and consumption of Kumi Kumi and other such brews. But unfortunately, the trade continues.

In Western Province, the traditional busaa and chang'aa have become more lethal as the brewers get more adventurous and try some short-cuts. A recent analysis has revealed that the most consumed narcotic drug, bhang, which is euphemistically referred to as shows that omusala (medicine) is now part of the ingredients in chang'aa.

But it is in Nyamira and Central Kisii where illicit brews and formerly harmless traditional brews have become particularly deadly. In the two areas, chang'aa is mostly "for export." The brew is "exported" to Kangemi and Kawangware in Nairobi, Migori, in southern Nyanza and the tea zones of Kericho and surrounding areas.

Twigs of the bhang plant

Nacada officials say brews from Central Kisii are particularly deadly and the area is notorious for the manufacture of illicit drinks. Leaves and twigs of the bhang plant are brewed together with the flour used to make the brews until they ferment.

"Taking the product is tantamount to consuming a pure form of bhang called tetrahydrocannabinol. The ingredient is so strong it leads to disorders in the brain. It causes mental problems," says Dr Achoki.

"Our studies indicate that in Nyamira and other parts of western Kenya where this brew is rampant, there are increasing cases of mental illnesses. The problem has gone beyond alcoholism."

Kisii brews are laced with other things. The Nacada officials say that in Kisii, brewers pay protection fee to police, who in turn give them a grace period, usually a week. In that period, the brewers are assured that police will turn a blind eye to their illicit operations.

But a week is too short to brew chang'aa, if all the stages are observed. And there is no guarantee that other police officers, not involved in the deal will not come. Brewers, therefore, hurry to maximise what they can produce within that one-week grace period. To speed up the fermentation and make the product strong, they add fertilisers, sisal juice, alkaline battery content and formalin.

"On their own, these products are toxic. Taking the combination is, therefore, like committing suicide. Users develop chest problems and there is a lot of diarrhoea," Nacada officials say.

Consumption of chang'aa in Nyamira has gone down. The brewers transport it to Migori and the Kericho tea belt where tea pickers, after a long day on the plantations, scramble for it.

Adding to the damage of the traditional brews laced with killer chemicals in western Kenya is a new brand of half-wine-half spirits concoction being sold in parts of Kisumu District.

Knockout power of three beers

Uhuru Sherry, Poolers Sherry and Lugen Imperial Vodka, the authorities warn, have illegal alcoholic content. Sherry is advertised to have the knockout power of three beers. Lugen Imperial Vodka is said to have an 80 per cent alcoholic content. The brews are said to originate from Naivasha.

Three months ago, the Kenya Bureau of Standards recommended that Vienna, Exotic Cherry, Chairman and Vatican Liquor, all manufactured by a Naivasha-based company, be banned. But the manufacturers protested that their products had been certified by the Government itself.

Tests have shown Lugen Vodka's ingredients to include jet fuel, hydrochloric acid, sisal juice and a combination of detergents.

Early this year, Mukurueni MP, Mr Muhika Mutahi, of the Democratic Party of Kenya alleged that a senior Permanent Secretary was involved in the manufacture and sale killer brews.

Nacada director Kaguthi agrees with the view by some politicians that government officials, including police and health officers, have been negligent when it comes to enforcing the ban on the sale and consumption of killer brews.

Mr Kaguthi adds: "I am ready to be crucified with the politicians who blame the Government inaction for the spread of these brews. These products are exported from far. They pass through numerous roadblocks manned by police before they reach their destinations in towns."