The diseconomies of alcoblow

By XN Iraki

Kenya: The eucalyptus tree, which was imported from Australia, can live forever. You cut it and before long, its offshoots are huge trees. That is why it is popular with farmers.

Our national problems closely mirror cutting a eucalyptus tree. We solve one, but several others crop up. The alcoblow presents a classic “eucalyptus” problem.

The full force of the Government is on the road at night, nabbing, not drunkards, but those who have exceeded the legal limits on the amount of alcohol on one’s breath.

It is not clear how reliable that equipment is, but it gets more comical: if arrested, the whole family gets arrested.

They have to bring you food in the cell, and it is worse if you are arrested on a Friday or over the weekend — the most popular time for making merry for after a long week of hustling.

Economic waste

The family must look for the bail or fine amount, which is economic waste for so many people. Add the fact that the arrested person might not work for two days. Oh, and you will also part with about Sh8,000 after your car is towed by a “breakdown” vehicle.

The Government has claimed that accidents have reduced by 28 per cent because of the use of the alcoblow device.  But we have used the device for such a short time that such conclusions are exaggerated. What of the same period the previous year? This is clearly someone trying to show us that he is working. What are we doing about the pedestrians who form 60 per cent of accident casualties?

It gets more interesting: alcohol is not the most dangerous drug in Kenya. We have cocaine, marijuana and other drugs, but I have not heard of mariblow or cocablow. Why are we so focused on alcohol?

We can make a simple conclusion: either the Government or cops want cheap money — it’s very tempting to bribe your way out on a Friday, and the fines are hefty enough to pay several people’s salaries.

Or the Government has its priorities wrong.

The other day I found 10 policemen manning an alcoblow road block. I have never seen 10 policemen patrolling my estate at night! That is misuse of scarce resources. No wonder gangsters are having a field day as we focus on alcoblow. What’s better, dying while driving your own car or at the hand of gangsters?

Alcoblow is also having another unintended effect on the economy. Lots of people derive their living from restaurants, and alcohol is a big contributor to their bottom line. Without beer, patrons usually go home early — you can’t take tea for four hours. Lots of jobs are being lost because of this restriction.

More serious is that we are restricting people with disposable income from disposing it and driving the economy. The Government also gets lots of taxes from alcohol.

Add the use of alcoblow to the ban on night travel for public transport vehicles, and you see the signs of a Government that appears to be sabotaging the economy through bureaucratic reactions.

Interestingly, I have not seen alcoblow for pedestrians, the hoi polloi who drink more alcohol beyond the legal limit, sometimes to death. Targeting car owners is discriminatory, period.

More interesting is that we do not make alcoblow devices, but we are very eager to make use of and laws that mandate their usage. We are eager to make laws on driving while using mobile phones, but we make none of these small gadgets.

It seems that every Kenyan problem has a legal solution. It’s the simplest, but like a cut eucalyptus tree, it creates more problems. It seems the confluence of law and economics has not been seriously explored.

The use of alcoblow will simply make Kenyans shift to undetectable drugs like cocaine and marijuana. But more seriously is that more Kenyans will take alcohol in their homes where they do not  have to worry about alcoblow. This will expose children to alcohol early in life.

Instead of sabotaging the economy by stopping Kenyans from beer consumption, we should suspend the use of alcoblow and simply make fines more serious for causing accidents through drunk driving.

Why the fuss?

I also wonder in the privacy of my thoughts why there is so much fuss about alcohol, which has been an integral part of civilisation.

I doubt there is any known community in the world, no matter how primitive, that did not know how to brew alcohol. Add the fact that it is used in religious ceremonies and you realise it’s not going anywhere.

The Government must stop using the eucalyptus approach to solving national problems. We must get to the root cause of our problems. We do not drink because we have lots of money. What alternative are we offering Kenyans for entertainment?

Too much control will kill the dynamism and creativity of Kenyans. Lots of people are attracted to this country because of “some disorder” from hooting matatus to late night drinking and other peculiarly Kenyan habits.

The writer is a lecturer and MBA programme co-ordinator, University of Nairobi.

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