THE COUNTRYMAN (LIQUOR) THAT KILLED MANY COUNTRY MEN

#ILLICIT BREWS

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his past week; Kenya’s drunken decadence was put on the spotlight for the world to see. How mind- boggling it was to see some 70 adults killed within 24 hours and each day the number rose. They voluntarily administered upon themselves a lethal intoxicant-the Countryman Liquor as it was dubbed; that ended up sending to the graves the many countrymen.

What a disgusting heavy blanket of de ja vu it was.  Scenes of many wallowing and writhing in pain in battered hospital beds, some gone permanently blind and families left in a suffocating disaster. It is simply pathetic and disgusting.

But was this a new incidence secluded on its own? No, and a big no for that matter. Not at all. We have seen it before. It happened six years ago- so it is nothing new. They say we are a peculiar people who are so fast to forget. But I say we do not forget. The graves stand in the witness stand boldly to deny us and argument and for everyone to see. So, too are those who went blind in the previous orgy.

I laughed at the Senior Government people who came out breathing fire and brimstones. They were angry and made sure their press conferences captured that. They stood to ask what their juniors were doing when these adults freely introduced killer substances into their bodies. I laughed because such is the tragedy of a nation in the grip of clueless leaders who address symptoms when they should be getting to the heart of the matter.

We have become a country that fails to ask the right questions. What drives a mature family and country men and women to the extremes of voluntarily rolling in lethal drinks; knowing very well they are lethal?

Watching the TV; one thing you could not fail to notice from the footage was the victims’ tumble down environment. We saw of their subhuman living conditions in the slum- villages.

They exist in the extremes of poverty and social exclusion; on the fringes of society. With nothing to live for; or even die for- these people gave up on life ages ago.

Let me tell you the harsh truth- when a country man has nothing to live for let alone die for; he is a zombie- a waking walking dead.

By Embukane Vincent Libosso-as inspired by Mr. Barrack Muluka.