KWAME: Kenya liquor law enforcement appears to favour men over women

Examining the available data on the population of Kenyans serving prison sentences reveals interesting insights. I argue that the profile of people in a country’s prisons tells a lot about its people, institutions and even its economy.

The reason for this is that a society's laws and its enforcement together proclaim what the consensus is about isolating people for crimes.

So what does Kenya’s prison population tell us about our economy, institutions and their interaction? First, the 2014 Economic Survey confirms that the prison population was 77,405 in 2013, down from 108,032 four years prior. This means that in 2013, one out of every 543 Kenyans was incarcerated.

For further context, the prison population in that year was sufficient to fully occupy the seats and standing spaces available in Kenya’s largest national stadium. Bearing in mind that another 150,513 people were committed to safe custody, the implications of this intense incarceration are clearer.

LIQUOR ACT QUESTIONABLE

By breaking up the prison population by sex, it is notable that women comprised 10 per cent of those serving sentences in that year. This shows that Kenya’s women are more law-abiding than Kenyan men and by a long distance.

However, a far more detailed scan of this presentation of descriptive statistics turns this bright picture of respect for law into an uglier one. Up to 50 per cent of the female population in prison in 2013 were convicted under offenses related to the liquor act. This was not an unusual year and that proportion has been consistent for five years prior to that.

Granted that three times more men are also convicted under the same law, it is immediately clear that a law that substantially raises the number of women in Kenya’s jails ought to be viewed meticulously.

Because the trends have confirmed that Kenya’s women are far more respectful of the law than men, that 50 per cent of those convicted are there on account of a single act makes this law and its enforcement processes altogether questionable.

LOPSIDED CONVICTIONS

Bearing in mind that a study conducted by the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Nacada) showed that adult Kenyan men consumed six times more alcohol than women, it is curious that conviction rates are this lopsided.

What the conviction figures show is that either the laws related to alcohol production, consumption and sale are too stringently applied or they are enforced in a manner that disproportionately exposes women to conviction. In this sense, there is a constitutional question regarding equal protection of laws and systematic applications against women in Kenya.

The law converges with economics in the area of the design and application of penal sanctions for individuals or groups. Thus even if a consensus may exist on how to respond to offences related to liquor in Kenya, it is essential to ask why it alters the conviction rates for men and women as much as the figures above show.

Given the propensity for greater consumption of alcohol by men, what hidden factor tilts the respective capture and conviction rates so decisively to women’s disadvantage?

Since the objects of the laws on liquor control were not specifically designed to capture women or to let men go free, it is clear that this law is inefficiently enforced.

MISTAKEN ENFORCEMENT

Observing Kenya’s prison statistics and the profile of men and women that have been convicted leads to the conclusion that the enforcement of offenses related to the laws on liquor are mistaken.

Any convicted person losses income and suffers social disruption. On the other hand, the costs of ensuring the capture, conviction and legal confinement of any prisoner are borne by the taxpayers.

This aggressive enforcement of alcohol laws is underpinned by the decisions of the judicial arm of government. It may help if judicial officers came to understand that the effects of imposing custodial sentences for these crimes may be excessive because most offenses classified under the liquor act usually involve no violence or violation of another’s property.

This doubling of the number of women in jail just because of aggressive enforcement of alcohol laws is not sound social or economic policy.

Keeping these women in jail is a symbolism that does not help anyone. The aggressive enforcement of liquor laws shows that both the bail policy and the dominant judicial philosophy have grave repercussions for women. Freeing these women is very good policy.