KENYA: The War On Brews: Why Mnazi Is Different

There are those who argue that, with the implementation of devolution, no region of this country can claim to be marginalized anymore.

I agree with this argument, but only up to a point. Beyond that point, they miss the point. Why do I say this? There are fundamental reasons in every region that can only be addressed through Presidential intervention. Take, for example, the longstanding crisis of rampant alcoholism in Central Kenya brought about by the wide distribution of cheap alcoholic drinks – or killer brews and liquors – in that region.

It has been well over 10 years since this problem was identified as a demographic tragedy within Central Kenya, arguably even more dangerous than the Mungiki menace, which was once viewed as the greatest threat in Central.

What was at stake was nothing less than the survival of an entire age group or riika. When you hear of young men who, instead of waking up early in the morning to run their small businesses or tend their smallholding farms, make a beeline for the nearest source of illicit alcohol, then you know you have a crisis on your hands.

I can only compare what has happened in Central to what happened in South Central Los Angeles’s Black community in the 1980s during the crack cocaine epidemic. Crack is a variety of the drug cocaine and one of the most highly addictive and destructive drugs in the world, just like Kenya’s illicit liquors. The Black community was ravaged by the lives destroyed before even the prime-of-life years of ages 30 to 40 and the negative effects of crime waves connected to insatiable addiction, just as is the case in the Mt Kenya region.Mass addiction is a dreadful thing.

A business of death dealing

But my greater point is that it required Presidential intervention and Kenya’s youngest President since 1978 to tackle this problem. President Uhuru Kenyatta is only 54, the same age as Daniel arap Moi was when he took over following Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s death in August 1978. Specifically, it required a young President from Central to seize the bull of Mt Kenya region’s mass alcoholism by the horns. It took a President with a Gikuyu heritage and the most distinguished political peerage in that region (and the nation) to call this evil by its unspeakable name – a business of death dealing.

President Kenyatta challenged elected leaders in Central and ordinary residents (their and his voters) to rise up and bring the death dealing to an end.

Unfortunately, as with so many other well-intentioned initiatives in Kenya over the years, the implementation has spiraled out of control and entered the realms of pure criminality. And this is happening not only in Central but across the nation.

This brings me to a case study of what is happening at the Coast and a passionate message I received early this week from one Maitha Masha of Malindi, Kilifi County.

A passionate appeal to the President

Masha approached me as a regular reader of the Weekend Star and my column, – as well as the Star’s new Coast Edition – and asked me to read a letter he has written to President Kenyatta. The subject of the letter, written in all caps is, MR PRESIDENT, BANNING OF MNAZI WINE IS LIKE KILLING THE MIJIKENDA.

It opens, and I reproduce the opening verbatim: “Mr. President, we are the 9 tribes who left your Ancestors in the Mountains during the migration from the Congo Forest and settled along the Coast, South of River Tana. When we settled in our new lands, we discovered the Coconut palm trees. We thanked our ancestors’ leading us to this land and above all giving us this tree.

Ever since, we have used this tree for various purposes like Building & Construction, Catering, Religious and Cultural practices, Commerce, Agriculture amongst many others. Of concern today is the Mnazi Wine, Sir. Last week, you gave a decree to ban illicit brew in the uplands. Some of those brands affected are kumi kumi, yokozuna, kk, kc, panther, trigger, flying horse, amongst the list of 385. However, I want to bring to your attention the inhumane handling of MNAZI operators by provincial administration and the police. They have beaten up our mothers, abused them poured their stock and ridiculed them before their family (we do this business mostly in our homes). THEY ARE KILLING US SIR!!

Sir, the wine is synonymous with our people, it gives our identity, it tells our story, it defines who we are in short..WE ARE MNAZI!”

Masha then begs the President’s indulgence to “open up” the world of mnazi for him.

Among the uses of mnazi he enumerates for President Kenyatta are cultural and communal identity; family (including naming ceremonies); catering; health; prayers; integration and cohesion; commerce; Nature versus chemicals; reproduction (including aphrodisiac properties).

Along the way, Masha informs President Kenyatta, “Sir, the last time you were here, we cooked you Mahamri which you really enjoyed. Did you know Palm wine is part of the ingredients? The Mnazi is used for leavening in place of yeast. Now you know”.

Administrators and police hijack Presidential decree

The Coast’s regional administrators and police are being terribly unfair and unjust by categorizing mnazi alongside illicit brew and liquor. They are derailing a well-meaning, far-seeing and very specific Presidential intervention. They must be stopped in their tracks – at once.

Every nation and community within it has its traditional liquor. And it is age-old, pre-modern, long pre-dating such modern things as electricity. Iceland has Brennivín aka “Black Death” (made from potatoes), India has Feni (from cashew or coconut), Ecuador has Aguardiente (from sugarcane), Cuba has Mojito (white rum, sugar and lime), Japan has Shochu (from rice) and Sake (whisky), Jamaica has Rum (from sugarcane), Scotland has Scotch whisky, particularly Single malt whisky, the national drink, and so on and so forth.

I am most gratified by Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi’s leadership on this issue and fully support his declaration that he will sue the national government authorities for detaining palm wine tappers and consumers.

Governor Kingi cautioned the State against “criminalizing a legal brew”. Hundreds of traders and consumers of palm wine have demonstrated in Kilifi, protesting the crackdown that has seen many legitimate businesses closed. They denounced the criminalization of palm wine and the accompanying destruction of property on top of extortion.

President Kenyatta must move fast and protect one of his most positive interventions ever from brutal, ignorant and corrupt administrators and police. He will find that the people of Kenya are fully behind him as long as his decree is carried out legally and without corruption.

A Kenya free of illicit brew would be among the President’s greatest legacies – and not only in the Mt Kenya region.
- See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/war-brews-why-mnazi-different#sthash.f1aywDF1.dpuf