New alcohol law sobers up youth

• Young men in Central forced to give up their morning tipple to seek casual jobs or join women and children on the farms

Some of the pictures that rallied Kenyans behind the new alcohol law were shot in the small, dusty shopping centre of Gatunyu, about 50 kilometres from Nairobi.

The shocking pictures relayed to millions of Kenyans’ sitting rooms showed youths reeling from alcohol as early as 8am.

Residents say 8am was not the earliest that the young men thronged drinking joints. By 6am, some would be staggering along the town’s dusty alleys.

But not any more.

Saturday Nation made the trip to the small town to check if, indeed, the new law had tamed the thirst Gatanga’s young men.

The law has done a good job of ridding the alleys of idlers.

“Wait until 5pm; the bars and other drinking joints will be full then,” says Mr Ndichu Waithaka, 50, a cobbler.

Thirsty faces

He, however says the new law is keeping the hordes of idle young men away from his shed where they would meet, thirsty faces scanning the road and alleys for anyone generous enough to buy them a drink.

Still, the first thing you see on driving into the shopping centre are young men. But they are either cutting grass to make hay to sell to dairy farmers, or straddling motorcycle taxis, patiently waiting for clients.

Some work in shambas either weeding the lush coffee fields or harvesting this season’s bumper avocado crop.

Area chief Peter Ndururi says these tasks are the lifeline of the area and young men have done them for decades.

But there is a difference this time round — although it is noon, the young folks are sober, a state locals say is a miracle.

“By noon, half of them would be drunk,” says Mr Michael Muthee, 45, a carpenter.

He should know: Although offering to pay Sh300 a day for a helping hand in his workshop, he found it hard to find a sober young man before the new alcohol laws came into force.

And when he did, the fellow could not be counted on to return the next day, least of all, sober.

Less than a month after the new laws came into effect, youths are thronging his workshop begging for jobs.

The carpenter may not be able to offer all of them work, but he knows that the young man he hires will not produce a three-legged bed or disappear with a tool to pawn to the bartender.

“The law has transformed the youth. Now they can do a proper job as they are sober,” he says.

However, a small number of youth still hang around the closed bars, throwing glances at passing vehicles on the Thika-Gatanga road.

For the few still struggling to adjust to staying sober until 5pm, the road brings back fond memories before the new alcohol law was enacted.

Then, it was a vital link to a free drink, mostly from “people of Nairobi.”

Weeks after the government ordered bars shut between 11pm and 5pm, a large number have drifted back home or to work.

But a few linger on, hoping the law will go away at some point.

One of them, in dirty yellow sandals, approaches our car and begs for Sh10. But when we ask if the money is for alcohol, he drifts away, mumbling to himself, probably silently cursing the new law and stingy city dwellers.

A sub-chief in the area, Mr Symon Mwaura says the centre had sunk deep into alcoholism.

“I now realise that alcohol is like a disease,” says Mr Mwaura. “If you look into the eyes of the youths idling near bars, you realise they are struggling to control themselves and wish the doors would just open.”

Though the 22 bars remain shut for most of the day, administrators keep a wary eye on the few idlers, urging them to go home, at least until 5pm.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us to educate them about the new alcohol law and encouraging them to engage in productive activities,” says Chief Nduriri.

Area MP Peter Kenneth says the new laws are a godsend as the young men of Gatanga have never been more sober.

Before the new laws came into effect, he says, much of the work on the coffee farms was left to women and children, The male folk would vanish in morning and stagger home in the evening.

Sports assistant minister Kabando wa Kabando agrees.

“The laws have transformed shopping centres,” he says.

But underneath the torrents of praise showered on the new alcohol laws, a stream of criticism fed by reported losses in the alcohol industry has been gaining momentum.

But Naivasha MP, John Mututho, the architect of the law, says these rivulets of criticism stand no chance against the rivers of support from a community that was on the brink of alcoholism.

“I know some people might want to lobby against this law, but I advise them to gauge the people’s mood,” says the MP.

The mood is clear in Gatunyu, and nothing captures this more than the first public baraza this year held last week.

According to Chief Nduriri, there was no single drunk at the baraza — something akin to a miracle.