Uganda’s Award winning alcoholism is also criminal

The Kenyan elections do not seem to be really over as the proverbial fat lady is yet to do any singing. It looked like all was done and dusted when the chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Isaack Hassan declared Uhuru Kenyatta the winner of the elections. But obviously it was not the end of the story. The figures that the IEBC had been feeding the public were nothing but suspicious and all this was easy to ignore under the noise of peace, Kenya Kwanza and Amani (no relation to Musali Mudavadi’s political vehicle). The media chose to remain silent and ignore some of the glaring inconsistencies all in the name of “Let us move on.” Meanwhile the winning Jubilee team started rehearsing for their new roles. However Raila Odinga announced that he could not concede defeat and was heading to the Supreme Court. On the social media streets Kenyans were busy jumping at anyone they thought was even slightly criticising them. Whether it was a foreign journalist, a government official from Botswana, a sarcastic Twitter user, even their own ‘brother’ Barrack Obama was not spared the increasing siege mentality of Kenyans on Twitter. With the elections having ended without any signs of worrying violence, Ugandans, Rwandans, Burundians and people in Eastern DRC were saved the usual interruptions of fuel supply although the fuel prices still went up a little in some places. With no serious worries about fuel, Uganda found itself on the global scene again for a not so flattering statistic. Ranked 8th worldwide, the country tops the list in Africa when it comes to alcohol consumption. A survey done by CNN titled, “World’s 10 best-drinking nations” had Uganda as the only African country on the list. Mention was made of one of Uganda’s most famous exports, Uganda Waragi as well as Ajono, a semi-fermented beer consumed in pots using long straws. The survey explains that Uganda made the list largely because of the rampant trade in illicit, locally-made liquor. Actually the issue of kanyanga in Rwanda is always linked to smugglers from Uganda. Interestingly the announcement of Uganda’s alcoholic prowess comes at a time when the Uganda Police has also vowed to not only arrest those who drink and drive but also those who drink and walk! Yes you read that right. The police is going to offer sanctuary to anyone who drinks then gets behind the wheel as well as the one who drinks and walks. The argument is that both categories of drunkards are a risk to others and themselves. I wonder whether this will mean that bars will invest in free transport for drunken patrons or simply offer lodging services until one is sober. What is not being mentioned though is that these new moves by the police in Uganda are not likely to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed by Ugandans who have embraced a party lifestyle. Kampala is often loved as the party capital of East Africa largely because one can do that whole bar-hopping business without worrying. The police in its efforts to deal with drunk-driving ends up making a killing through bribes from motorists and the cynical me, thinks the move to arrest drunken pedestrians is only aimed at increasing the bribe fishnet. I still vividly recall (with shame) the day when a Ugandan artist, Bebe Cool used the gorilla naming ceremony in Rwanda to inform the huge crowd that Uganda was the coolest country to live in because one could drink and drive without any problem as long as he/she had 5000 shillings (about 1200Frw) to bribe any police man. In other news, I read an interesting story about how different media houses in Kenya had invested a lot in time for the general elections. One media house even purchased helicopters to fly around journalists in search for news from all corners. How I wish these investments can help them to cover the region better now that the elections is behind us. When Kenyans were voting, the whole region was paying attention. If we can sustain the same attention for events in other countries then we can be sure to achieve the regional integration that our politicians like to parrot about every time they are before a microphone. There is simply no way we can dream of uniting if we are ignorant about what is happening around us. Blog: www.ssenyonga.wordpress.comTwitter: @ssojo81