7 miss jail over drink-driving

Kampala

They went to the bar, downed several bottles of beer and staggered proudly into their cars. Soon the merrymaking was over as the patrons fell into traffic police traps.

Yesterday, seven suspects who declined to exhale into a breathalyser to enable police determine alcohol levels in their blood but opted to challenge the traffic officers, found themselves staring at imprisonment in the face.

Relatives of Tony Ssemakula, a car dealer, Makerere University student Derrick Bawoolwa and his Nkumba University counterpart Nathan Okebe as well as Rose Nava, the only female among the group, had to make hurried bank payments of Shs100,000 for each culprit, not be hauled to Luzira Prison.
Others convicted by four different magistrates at Buganda Road Court, but were later freed after paying the fines, included Ali Lutaaya, Nelson Kakiga Birungi and Raymond Asiimwe. They were arrested on Jinja, Mukwano and Buganda roads, according to investigators.

Court records show that the culprits were arrested at the weekend in a police crackdown on errant individuals who drive under the influence of alcohol.
Prosecutors said the alcohol concentration in the blood of the convicts was higher and in some cases almost double - the legally permissible 35 milligrammes per litre of blood threshold. Had their relatives not rescued them, the six men and one woman would have served between six to 12 months jail term.

Beer prices slashed
The maximum penalty for drink-driving is a Shs1.2 million fine or one-year custodial sentence, or both. About three months ago, the same court convicted and fined 17 motorists for drink-driving. However, police battles against drunk drivers yesterday seemed to have got some unsolicited boost from brew makers, Nile Breweries Ltd, which increased prices for premium brands by 8.6 per cent.

The price for a bottle of Nile Special and Club Pilsner have also increased from Shs1,800 to about Shs2,000, meaning consumers will have to spend more to consume less of the product. The changes also mean that Nile Breweries’ economy brands such as Eagle Extra will now sell at Shs1,500 per bottle, up from Shs1,300.

In a statement sent to this newspaper yesterday, the company attributed the price movements to the increased inputs, operational and financing costs. “The depreciation in the exchange rate following the global recession has resulted in cost increases of containers and packaging material in particular, while we have experienced a sharp increase in freight costs passed onto us by our third party transporters,” the statement reads in part. Officials said the recent fuel price increases have also pushed up the cost of transportation, “which is a significant cost driver in our business due to the bulky nature of beer”.

The company said its intensive expansion programme, which doubled brewing and packaging capacity last year and the continued construction of barley malting plant this year to broaden their local raw material supply chain, has imposed substantial borrowings on the business at high interest rates.

The good news for some is that the prices of all other NBL premium brands such as Nile Gold, Castle Milk Stout, and Redd’s Premium Cold remained unchanged. Similarly, the prices of the company’s imported premium brands, Castle Lager and Grolsch, will not be affected.