String of alcohol-related deaths linked to auctioned methanol, but no one is accepting responsibility

What you need to know:

  • Four months after the auction — in July — 28 people died in Uasin Gishu of alcohol-related complications. The following week, one person died and five others were hospitalised at the Machakos Level Five Hospital after consuming yet another brand of toxic brew.
  • Nacada’s Fazul Mohammed says that, as a result of this, the authority is seeking the involvement of line agencies in the handling of potentially harmful products, especially at points of entry.
  • KRA instead blames Kebs, which responds that it revised the pre-shipment verification of goods procedures to include methanol after the loss of lives.
  • An inspection carried out by the agency in April 2014 found that only 34 per cent of alcoholic drinks sold in the western and Mt Kenya regions complied with the parameters set by the quality agency.

Kenya’s fight against illegal liquor seems almost lost despite numerous legislative efforts to regulate the alcohol industry.

The latest incident in Narok County, where nine people died after drinking a substance suspected to have been laced with methanol, has raised questions about how easy it is to get the dangerous chemical that has caused hundreds of deaths in the country over the past five years.

In Narok alone, methanol-laced alcohol has killed more than 130 people since May this year. The latest wave of deaths has been blamed on a cheap brand of alcohol called Podi Podi and came the same week that four people were hospitalised at Tigoni Mission Hospital after consuming yet another poisonous brand of cheap liquor.

These two incidents, however, are not isolated as hardly a month passes without reports of alcohol-related deaths across the country, raising questions about the efficacy of control mechanisms on the manufacturing, distribution, and consumption of illicit booze.

The spotlight is now on the easy availability of methanol in the country. The chemical currently killing Kenyans in their hundreds, we have learnt, may be part of a consignment that was held at a customs warehouse in Kilindini, Mombasa, for at least two years before it was finally auctioned earlier this year.

Because methanol is not locally produced, manufacturers have to import it. This particular consignment arrived in the country in April 2012 but the owner failed to collect the 80 drums containing about 20,000 litres, hence the two-year stay in a warehouse.

A gazette notice issued on 5 October, 2012, warned that the commodity — belonging to a Mombasa-based firm — would be auctioned the following month if it was not cleared.

It was not, however, until March this year that the methanol was finally cleared from the warehouse after a public auction. Two months later, 113 people died after consuming methanol-laced alcohol. It is now believed that there is a connection between the deaths and the auctioned consignment.

Four months after the auction — in July — 28 people died in Uasin Gishu of alcohol-related complications. The following week, one person died and five others were hospitalised at the Machakos Level Five Hospital after consuming yet another brand of toxic brew.

HIGHEST IN A DECADE

During the same period, more than 900 people were hospitalised over various ailments, including loss of eyesight and stomach complications, according to a report by the Inter-Agency Committee on Killer Brews.

The latest deaths are the highest in more than a decade after another incident in 2000 in which 137 people died in Nairobi’s Mukuru Kayaba slums.

According to the chairman of the National Authority for Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Nacada), John Mututho, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) had tried to dispose of the methanol at least eight times in public auctions after the importers failed to collect it.

It was finally bought in March this year by a tea farmer and there is an unidentified amount still in circulation that the government is trying to find.

“Some culprits have been identified and the names are with the Director of Public Prosecutions,” says Mututho, adding that the methanol suspected to be causing the current string of deaths was sub-standard since it had already expired.

This, however, raises questions about why KRA would auction goods that are sub-standard in the first place.

Nacada’s Fazul Mohammed says that, as a result of this, the authority is seeking the involvement of line agencies in the handling of potentially harmful products, especially at points of entry.

“KRA will not have the monopoly to dispose of substances which may have (a negative) health impact... but will be required to consult partner agencies, which include Nacada, the Government Chemist, and the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs),” says Mohammed.

“We will also gazette regulations that categorise methanol as a restricted substance, (which will mean that) KRA must get approvals from these agencies (to handle the same).”

But KRA is seeking to absolve itself of blame, saying its role “is to collect taxes, and that “there is no restriction to inspection or importation of methanol into the country”.

“Importers of methanol are not licensed by KRA but are approved by Kebs,” said a KRA official in response to our queries.

KRA indicated that auctioning of the methanol was procedurally done and that the organisation had the necessary documents to support the process, and therefore should not be held culpable for the deaths.

However, Mututho says the substance had expired and was traded without a licence.

KRA instead blames Kebs, which responds that it revised the pre-shipment verification of goods procedures to include methanol after the loss of lives.

Methanol is used to manufacture paint. It poisons the body, leading to destruction of the nervous system, permanent blindness and, in extreme cases, death.

A bottle of liquor found at Kiawamwaki farm in Limuru on May 06, 2014 where ten people died after consuming the illicit alcohol. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

The United Kingdom’s Health Protection Agency warns that the minimum lethal dose of methanol is as little as four to 10ml in adults. That means that the presence of even the slightest hint of the chemical in the body is dangerous, yet Kenya’s backstreet brewers still find it necessary to “enrich” their concoctions with litres of this killer product.

In a statement, Health Cabinet secretary James Macharia indicated that samples of the drinks collected in Embu revealed that they had a 70 per cent methanol content while the concentration was 100 per cent in Makueni, explaining the high fatalities in the areas.

The government has since issued a warning to Kenyans not to consume alcohol packaged in sachets and plastic bottles as the contents can be easily adulterated.

“Consumers should know that it is not business as usual. Almost all the drinks which caused death did not have legally-issued Kebs marks,” says John W. Abong’, the director for quality assurance and inspection at Kebs.

The standards body has since established a system to be used to determine the genuineness of quality marks to avoid misuse, although it is difficult to trace manufacturers of illegal brews who operate from their homes. The organisation is calling on the public to help in identifying such cases in order to bring the culprits to book.

This might not help improve the situation as brewers of chang’aa and other traditional brews continue with their business, especially in the slums, low-income areas, and rural areas.

In Dandora’s Gitamarigu area, for instance, residents get drunk from as early as 7am.

The thousands of illicit brewers across the country target those who want an easy, fast, and cheap high, which explains why most of these deaths are concentrated in low-income areas.

Some of the cheap brands are illegal knock-offs of established products and their association with these numerous deaths is injurious to the interests of honest enterprise.

M/S Comrades Investment Company, one of the companies whose licence was withdrawn after the May deaths, manufactured a wide range of products, including the infamous Countryman, Sacramento, Hardyman Brandy, Hardyman Gin, Hardyman Vodka, Georges Vodka, Georges Brandy, Rhyneberg Brandy, Pamoja Brandy, and Pamoja Gin.

AUCTIONED BOTTLES

As concerned agencies gear up efforts to trace the remaining methanol that is believed to be still in circulation, they are also poking holes into the parallel auctioning on the day the methanol was sold in Mombasa of 1,218 cases of President Whisky bottles, 1,240 cases of Blue Riband Gin bottles, and five containers of 250-millilitre bottles branded “Keroche” because, they believe, these could be used to counterfeit already established and otherwise safe brands.

In the past three years, the anti-counterfeit agency has seized counterfeit goods worth Sh742 million, including alcohol products, and destroyed Sh155 million worth. It plans to destroy another lot worth Sh186 million.

Kebs’ quality marks have also been counterfeited, leading to use of illegal alcoholic drinks by unsuspecting customers.

“There are people out there who are using quality marks which are not genuine,” says Abong’.

The penalty for use of fake quality marks is Sh200,000 for each count detected. There are two court cases currently ongoing after unscrupulous manufacturers were caught using marks without the authority by Kebs, says the official.

According to Kebs, the sale of adulterated alcohol is fuelled by the fact that some manufacturers do not put batch numbers on their products while outlets do not maintain documents that can be used to help trace the suppliers.

An inspection carried out by the agency in April 2014 found that only 34 per cent of alcoholic drinks sold in the western and Mt Kenya regions complied with the parameters set by the quality agency.

A new proposal by the agency requires manufacturers to develop and implement procedures to enable them to undertake product recall once complaints about them are raised. This will also be one of the requirements for certification for any manufacturer.

Further, the inter-agency committee found that “there was collusion between the alcohol industry and the police force”, leading to poor enforcement of the law.

Surprisingly, after conducting investigations after the mass deaths in May, the Government Chemist found that only three of the 221 samples that were submitted for analysis had methanol, prompting condemnation from the principal secretary in the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, Mutea Iringo.

“The report by the Government Chemist says there was no methanol in a number of samples in the specimen provided, but the bodies of the people who took the drinks have methanol. This can only mean that somebody interfered with the results.

“We will not let Kenyans continue dying because of corruption and faked results. All concerned agencies, from Kebs to the Government Chemist, should do their work,” he said recently.

DOES NOT REGULATE

On its part, Nacada says its role is a coordinating one, not enforcement or regulation: “Nacada’s mandate entails carrying out public education on alcohol and drug abuse directly and in collaboration with public and private bodies and institutions, among other key roles which include coordination, with emphasis on demand reduction,” CEO William Okedi says.

“We do not undertake sampling and testing of alcoholic drinks, neither do we certify the quality of any alcohol products because there are specialised agencies which perform these functions.”

Okedi adds that Nacada does not enforce alcohol and drug-related legislation as this is the function of law enforcement agencies and the justice system, and that licensing of alcoholic outlets is a devolved function of the county governments.

As the blame is passed from one agency to the next, Kenyans are heading to their drinking joints for their tipple, and probably to hospital wards after that, if they are lucky.